Woman caught on ‘nanny cam’ assaulting child

Concerned about how her daughter behaved around her four-year-old stepchild, a woman secretly set up a “nanny cam” to capture their interactions.

Shocked by what was captured on video, the woman went to Niagara Regional Police.

The footage from July 2018 includes a short video of the 21-year-old Niagara Falls woman repeatedly grabbing and twisting the boy’s head.

In another video she lifts the boy by his head, his feet off the ground, and violently tosses him on the top bunk of a bunk bed.

“It was like throwing laundry out,” assistant Crown attorney Mark Eshuis said Wednesday in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines.

“It is very disturbing behaviour.”

In one of the videos, the child is on the floor but cannot be seen on film. The defendant makes movements with her legs but it is unclear if she is stepping on or kicking the child.

In most of the videos, the child cries and screams.

“There were no physical injuries, but these must have been emotional and traumatic events for young (the victim),” Eshuis added.

At a sentencing hearing Wednesday, court was told officials are concerned the woman, who pleaded guilty to a charge of assault, may be at risk to reoffend.

The author of a presentence report described the woman as being “flat, void of emotion and apathetic” when discussing her interaction with her stepson.

The investigating police officer also noted the woman’s lack of emotion during interviews and said he is “fearful of (the defendant) reoffending in the same manner.”

“Her behaviour shows an inability to parent,” the Crown said.

“I understand a parent might get frustrated, but this goes beyond that. There was a total lack of affection and care of that young child.”

Defence lawyer David Protomanni described his client, the mother of two young children, as a “young, immature parent” who acted out of frustration.

Judge Cameron Watson questioned that assertion, noting the defendant graduated from an early childhood education program shortly before the incident and would have been familiar with how to deal with children.

“To me, that sort of sticks out and is very alarming,” the judge said.

Protomanni said his client has completed a number of counselling programs since her arrest and is working toward “rebuilding her family.”

“She realizes what she did was wrong and she’s trying to make things right,” he said.

The judge told the defendant he would accede to a joint submission proposed by the defence and the Crown that she receive a 12-month conditional sentence, also referred to as house arrest, when she returns to court Sept. 17.