BY KEITH LACEY
The young parents of two children who were victims of horrific neglect were sentenced to nine-month jail terms Thursday.
The mother, 22, and father, 25, were both in tears as they were led away to start serving their sentences.
Both were arrested early last April after an anonymous caller reported neglect to the Children?s Aid Society (CAS). CAS workers found an eight-month-
old near death due to dehydration and lack of nutrition, and a two-year-old living in appalling, filthy conditions.
The couple pleaded guilty to failing to provide the necessities of life.
Justice Louise Gauthier of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sentenced the couple to jail terms explaining conditional sentences to be served in the community were not appropriate in this case. Their names can?t be published in order to protect the identity of the children.
There is no greater responsibility for a human being than to provide a loving, nurturing relationship for their children and this couple failed miserably, said the veteran judge.
During 12 months of probation, both accused must take any counselling as recommended by their probation officer and not be in the presence of any child under age 16 unless in the presence of another adult.
Assistant Crown attorney Diane Fuller said the only mitigating factors are the guilty pleas, which avoided a lengthy and disturbing trial.
?If we look at the horrific facts of this case and the extent of neglect...it?s one where the parents of these two children basically sentenced them to a life worse than inside any penal institution,? said Fuller.
The baby was near death due to starvation and the two-year-old had obviously survived without any emotional, physical or psychological attention paid to her and that child is suffering obvious signs of developmental delay, said Fuller.
?The harm done to these two children is incalculable,? she said. ?They put their own interests ahead of their children...these were two people who didn?t care what happened to their kids,? she said.
Since being charged, neither parent has sought counselling or made any attempts to inquire about whether or not either child has recovered or improved, which is very troubling, she said.
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