Woman gets 18-month suspended sentence for assaulting nieces

Weeping as she was sentenced, a Calgary woman on Thursday was handed an 18-month suspended sentence for physically abusing two nieces orphaned by a car crash.

The woman, 46, was given the sentence by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sandy Park for spanking the girls with a wooden spoon and electrical cords, and stretching their mouths with her fingers.

But last week, she was acquitted of much more serious accusations, such as making the girls eat their own vomit, sticking needles in their mouths and dragging them by their hair.

“It was not a steady pattern of abuse, it was brought about by the original misbehaviour by the girls in the eyes of the accused,” said Park, who noted the girls’ parents were killed in a car crash in New Jersey in 2006.

He said the disciplinary assaults that occurred in 2010 and 2011 were consistent with the woman’s own upbringing and similar to the use of the strap once employed by Calgary schools.

“It was emotionally and physically painful, but it was transitory,” said Park.

In his ruling last week, Park said the girls fabricated many of the allegations out of spite due to harsh discipline.

The aunt, who can’t be identified to protect the identities of the children, tearfully apologized for her actions and professed undying love for the girls.

“They are my life ... they are the reason I do not let go of my hope,” she told court.

“I did all that was asked of me to reunite my family, but it was not enough.”

The Crown had sought 18 months to two years’ imprisonment.

The girls and their foster parents remain adamant their accusations are true.

In a victim-impact statement read by Crown prosecutor Ken McCaffrey, the eldest of the girls said she still fears her aunt and uncle.

“I’m slowly getting over my looking-over-my-shoulder feeling,” said the girl, who was 13 at the time of the assaults.

“I don’t want anything to do with any biological family ... I don’t have any trust in them.”

She said the situation with her foster family is much happier.

Her younger sister told court she fears for her aunt’s other children and is still bewildered by the abuse.

“I don’t understand why those things happened with my aunt; I’m not sure if they ever loved me,” she said.

Her uncle was acquitted of all charges.

Park also said the stress and depression brought on by the death of the woman’s sister’s in 2006 and the sudden adoptions contributed to the assaults.