Accused called unfit mom in ’79
‘ She appears to be a danger to herself as well as others’ Woman, 54, charged with starving grandson
A forensic psychologist warned the Catholic Children’s Aid Society more than 25 years ago that the 54-year-old woman now facing a murder charge for the starvation death of her grandson was an unfit and potentially dangerous parent, court heard yesterday.
In a psychological assessment of Elva Bottineau dated Feb. 2, 1979, Dr. Ruth Bray wrote “ the demands which the children are likely to make on her, especially as they mature, seem beyond her capabilities.”
“ At times, she appears to be a danger to herself as well as to others and her anger masks depression,” Bray wrote in the report prepared for a judge on behalf of the CCAS, which at the time had taken away Bottineau’s two oldest children.
“( Bottineau) does not seem to have any real appreciation of the risks she takes with others and may well precipitate herself into an untenable position.”
Bottineau and her husband, Norman Kidman, 53, have pleaded not guilty to the firstdegree murder of their grandson Jeffrey Baldwin, who died of septic shock Nov. 30, 2002, at age 5. They have also pleaded not guilty to the unlawful confinement of a granddaughter. They were awarded custody of Jeffrey and his three siblings by the CCAS despite each having a criminal record for child abuse, court has heard. Court has also heard Jeffrey weighed only 21 pounds at the time of his death. He was kept locked in a cold bedroom, where he urinated and defecated on the floor, court has been told.
“ This is a woman who is not well- adjusted and cannot take responsibility,” said Bray, referring to her 1979 assessment. She does not remember meeting Bottineau.
Court has heard that in 1970 Bottineau was charged with assault causing bodily harm in the death of her baby. She was married then to a distant cousin. She pleaded guilty and received a suspended sentence with one year’s probation. A psychiatrist at the time diagnosed her with borderline mental retardation, court heard Monday.
In 1975, after having two more children with the same man, she met Kidman and became pregnant with his child. She left her husband for Kidman. By 1979, Bottineau and Kidman had three children of their own and were also living with her two children from the first marriage.
In 1979, the CCAS removed the two oldest children from their care after Kidman abused them but left the three youngest children, according to Bray’s report.
Bray, who testified for Bottineau’s defence team, found in 1979 that Bottineau’s intelligence remained unchanged from 1970 and that she possessed a childlike assessment of right and wrong. Crown prosecutor Beverley Richards pointed out during cross- examination that Bray in 1979 described Bottineau as “evasive and inconsistent” as well as “ cunning.” The trial resumes next Tuesday.