Verdict to come in ‘enslavement’ trial
Judge hears closing arguments for man charged with confining homeless man, abducting child
The trial for a Toronto man, who allegedly enslaved an intellectually disabled homeless man, subjected him to decades of abuse and stole his baby, will come to a close when the presiding judge delivers his verdict in the new year, after final arguments on Thursday.
Gary Willett Sr. is charged with, and pleaded not guilty to, forcibly confining, assaulting, not providing the necessities of life and stealing more than $5,000 from Tim Goldrick, as well as abducting a child under the age of 14 — Goldrick’s son, Gary Willett Jr.
In his closing submissions, Willett Sr.’s lawyer Sam Goldstein argued that various family members, including Willett Jr., colluded against him because of perceived wrongdoings.
Before Judge John McMahon, he said that Willett Jr., an alleged victim, and his adopted brother were “ungrateful, selfish snowflakes, both with a manufactured syndrome of self pity.”
Willett Sr.’s family history became public when his trial began earlier this fall, but stretches back decades.
Willett Sr. and his wife, Maria Willett, met Goldrick in the late 1980s when he was scrounging for food in a dumpster. The couple befriended him and his common-law wife and helped them find a home. The Crown alleged the Willetts began abusing Goldrick soon after, stealing his government disability cheques and lying on hospital records so his firstborn son would appear to be their son.
In apartments and houses throughout downtown Toronto, North York and Etobicoke, Goldrick testified that he was physically, emotionally and verbally abused. He said the Willetts told him they’d send him to a “mental institution” if he ever tried to leave, which frightened him and made him stay.
“Sometimes, while I was sleeping, Gary (Sr.) would come in and hit me for no reason, and I’d wake up and I wondered why he did this. But I never found out why,” Goldrick testified in September, adding that he would also be beaten for taking food without permission.
Willett Sr. said Goldrick smelled, didn’t take care of himself and would steal food. Judge John McMahon asked why Willett Sr. would allow Goldrick to live with him if he could “barely tolerate him.”
In response, Goldstein described Willett Sr.’s actions as “admirable.
“He felt a moral obligation to Tim because Tim gave him his child,” he said. “I think any human being would understand that.”
The Crown said that Willett Sr.’s motivation was financial. Between 1999 and 2012, when Goldrick left with the help of a friend, Willett Sr. is alleged to have stolen more than $146,000 from him.
Many friends and family members of the Willetts testified they knew Goldrick was being abused. The defence asked why, if the allegations are true, they didn’t come forward sooner.
Goldrick said he was allowed to go to the store to pick up food or shovel snow for neighbours in the winter, but he always returned home to the Willetts.
“Tim never took even one of the multitude of opportunities he had to remove himself from the situation,” Goldstein wrote in his closing submission.
Although the doors weren’t locked, Goldrick was physically constrained, wrote prosecutor Jennifer Strasburg in her closing submission.
“Physical constraint was achieved over a long period of time by psychological means. Tim (Goldrick) was in a psychological prison created by Gary and Maria Willett.”