Sentencing argued for mom who hid 6 dead babies

‘NO REMORSE’

WINNIPEG• A lawyer representing a woman convicted of concealing the bodies of six infants in a rented Winnipeg storage locker says she should be spared more jail time.

Greg Brodsky told Andrea Giesbrecht’s sentencing hearing Friday that the 43-year-old has already spent 168 days in custody following her arrest in 2014.

He says the court should remember Giesbrecht is being sentenced only on concealing the remains and not on anything to do with how the infants died.

Brodsky is asking for a sentence of time already served while the Crown wants an 11-year sentence with credit for time served.

Crown attorney Debbie Buors says no dignity was given to the fetuses once they were brought into the world and Giesbrecht has not shown any remorse for her actions.

Brodsky says Giesbrecht is not required to explain what happened.

“She doesn’t have to testify,” he told a Winnipeg court. “She doesn’t have to provide an explanation.”

Giesbrecht was arrested in October 2014 after she defaulted on paying rent for the storage locker. Staff, who were to auction off the locker’s contents, opened a plastic bin, noticed a strange smell and called police.

Medical experts testified the infants were Giesbrecht’s, were at or near fullterm, and were likely to have been born alive. But because the remains were badly decomposed, it was impossible to determine how the infants died.

Buors told court that Giesbrecht carefully hid all six pregnancies, placed the remains in bags and plastic containers and carried them to a U-haul storage locker.

“There has been no remorse shown by Andrea Giesbrecht,” Buors said.