Mom sent to prison for assaulting toddler son

An Airdrie woman will serve two years in prison for assaulting her son on different occasions, causing a fractured jaw and broken rib, among his other wounds, a judge ordered Friday.

Justice Jo’Anne Strekaf agreed with a joint submission from defence counsel Shamsher Kothari and Crown prosecutor Ron Simenik for the minimum federal penitentiary term.

A publication ban on the identity of the child prohibits naming his mother.

“This is a very sad and tragic case because it involves an assault on a young and vulnerable child by his mother, who is the person that is most entrusted with taking care of her son,” Strekaf said.

Simenik, reading from a statement of agreed facts, said the woman took her son to the Airdrie Urgent Care unit on Oct. 26, 2014, because he had been vomiting with a fever.

She also advised the urgent care doctor that the boy, then 20 months old, had bruised his left elbow, which had become swollen, Simenik said.

After viewing an X-ray, the doctor did not believe the elbow was broken and sent the mother and child home. But a review by a radiologist discovered a fracture, the prosecutor said.

She was then directed to go to the Alberta Children’s Hospital and on Oct. 28, 2014, the boy was examined further.

At that time Dr. Jennifer MacPherson, an expert in child abuse, determined he had multiple injuries that had been inflicted on him, Simenik said.

As well as a fracture to his elbow, which was less than seven to 10 days old, the child had recent trauma to his pancreas, fractures to one rib that was up to several months old, and a healing fracture to his jaw which couldn’t be dated.

The woman was the only caregiver for her two children, as her husband at the time was charged with assaulting her and subjected to a no contact order, Simenik said.

He acknowledged the offender was under a lot of strain at the time because of her domestic situation.

“The Crown is mindful of the stress that young children in that age range can cause,” Simenik said, as the woman began weeping in the prisoner’s box.

Kothari said the abuse his client suffered at the hands of her husband made her situation worse.

“This is a case that involved a cycle of violence that ends with serious injuries to this child,” he said.

At the lawyer’s request, Strekaf recommended the woman serve her time at the Grand Valley Institute for Women in Kitchener, Ont., to be near family.