Woman’s mental deficiency cited
Jeffrey’s grandmother assessed in 1970 Had been charged in death of her first baby, court told
The 54- year- old woman facing a murder charge for the starvation death of her grandson, Jeffrey Baldwin, was diagnosed with “ borderline mental retardation” 35 years ago, court heard yesterday.
Elva Bottineau, who was assessed at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in 1970 by psychiatrist Dr. Eugene Mandryk, was described in a report as being of “ borderline mentally defective intelligence,” and displaying “ social immaturity, poor judgment, aggressive tendencies and poor impulse control.” Mandryk, who testified for the defence, assessed Bottineau when she was admitted after being charged with assault causing bodily harm in the death of her baby who suffered broken bones. She later received a suspended sentence with one year’s probation. Mandryk, who then worked in the forensic unit of what is now called the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, admitted he had no recollection of meeting Bottineau, conducting the assessment or even writing the report. However, he said, his practice then was to consider several assessments from nursing and psychology staff when reaching his conclusion.
In his report, dated April 8, 1970, Mandryk wrote that while Bottineau “expressed normal grief” when discussing her baby, she steadfastly maintained she did nothing to harm her baby intentionally. “ Her background is socially and educationally impoverished and her mode for survival has been to show aggression and to deny unpleasant or bad qualities and habits.”
Court has heard that in 1970 she was married to a cousin, a union that resulted in two more children. But she left him in 1975 after meeting Norman Kidman and becoming pregnant with the first of their three children.
Bottineau and Kidman, 53, have pleaded not guilty to the first- degree murder of fiveyearJeffrey, who died of septic shock on Nov. 30, 2002. They have also pleaded not guilty to the unlawful confinement a granddaughter. Despite each having a criminal record for child abuse, the couple was given custody of Jeffrey and his three siblings by the Catholic Children’s Aid Society.
Superior Court Justice David Watt yesterday dismissed a combined defence motion that the charge of first- degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence with no hope of parole for 25 years, be reduced to second- degree murder, where a judge can set the parole eligibility as low as 10 years.
Court has heard that Jeffrey was weakened by years of starvation and weighed just 21 pounds when he died. When the little boy wasn’t kept locked in his cold bedroom, where he urinated and defecated on the floor, he was “ treated like a dog” and forced to eat in a corner, according to witnesses called by the Crown.
Yesterday marked the first day that defence lawyers Anil Kapoor and Nicholas Xynnis, both representing Bottineau, called witnesses to the stand. In opening remarks, Kapoor said three medical experts would be called to testify on Bottineau’s intellectual functioning to “better understand her capabilities and state of mind at the time of the events giving rise to the charges in this case.” Under cross-examination by Crown Beverley Richards, Mandryk was asked why he did not recommend Bottineau undergo psychiatric treatment, to which he responded: “ Mental deficiency cannot be treated.” The trial resumes today.