How Could You? Hall of Shame-Canada-Janet and Joe Holm UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Bloomfield, Ontario, Canada, an 48-year-old foster mother Janet Turner Holm and an 45-year-old foster father Joe Holm”who turned their home into a “sexual cult” while fostering 25 teenagers over the course of three years will spend a total of seven years in prison.
The couple — who cannot be named under a publication ban [except they are named in another article and we have included their names] — pleaded guilty to several charges including possession of child pornography, sexual assault and invitation to sexual touching earlier this fall and were sentenced in the Ontario court of justice Tuesday.
In an agreed statement of facts, court heard the teens fostered by the couple were often involved in parties with the couple that featured sexual activities, consumption of alcohol and exchanging of sexual toys as gifts. Girls as young as 15 were encouraged to practice oral sex on wine bottle necks and the husband would sometimes grab the girls’ breasts.
Crown attorney Jodi Whyte, in reading the facts, said one teen called the home a “sexual cult” where there were no boundaries. The victims, she added, were subjected to a “cult like” atmosphere and were “manipulated” to the benefit of the couple.
John Ecclestone, who represented the wife, told the court there is no doubt the home fostered inappropriate sexual boundaries but also argued “it could have been very, very much worse than it was.” He noted there was no violence in the home and no “ongoing rape or buggery.”
“It’s not as if we’re talking about someone who was seven-years-old,” Ecclestone said.” 
“In delivering his sentence, Griffin said he would take into account both accused entered guilty pleas but admitted his decision was hard to formulate.
Griffin said the pair breached their positions of trust and welcomed the children into their home and used them for their own joy and sexual satisfaction. These children had been placed in their home by the Children’s Aid Society as “vulnerable” youth, some of whom had come from homes where they had been sexually assaulted, he said.
Griffin also questioned the CAS’s apparent ignorance to what was taking place at the home. He said in a small community such as Prince Edward County, it is difficult to believe no one knew what was taking place.
“I hope the public demands there be an inquiry into what took place at the home,” Griffin said.
The 48-year-old woman will serve three years in prison. She was ordered to provide a DNA sample and will be included in the Sex Offender Registry. In addition, any photographs or videos she has featuring any of the foster children — whether pornographic in nature or not — will be handed over to the Crown.
Her 45-year-old husband received a sentence of four years in prison. Like his wife, he is now included on the Sex Offender Registry and had to provide a DNA sample. In addition, he has a 10-year weapons prohibition.”
Ontario foster parents jailed for sex offences
[Toronto Sun 11/2/11 by W. Brice McVicar]
“In the wake of a shocking case of two Bloomfield Foster Parents being convicted of sexually exploiting dozens of teens in their care, the Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society is going to be examinging its own internal polices. When handing down the combined seven years in jail for the couple this week Justice Geoff Griffin said he hoped members of the public would push for an inquiry into the matter. In an interview in the Belleville Intell, Bill Sweet the executive director of the county’s CAS said they take those comments very seriously and that changes have already taken place to help make sure similar situatons don’t arise. He say becoming a foster parent has become more difficult in the years since the couple were approved and that they are looking at their own practices in terms of how homes are monitored and supported. ”
JUDGE HOPES FOR INQUIRY
[Napanee Today 11/4/11]
“Bill Sweet, executive director of the County’s Children’s Aid Society, said his agency has already had internal discussion regarding the case of Joe and Janet Turner Holm. ”
“The Ontario Superior Court of Justice learned the couple — who fostered 25 teenagers over a period of nine years — provided a home with little to no restrictions with rampant sexual behaviour.
During court proceedings it was disclosed the teens fostered by the Holms were often involved in parties with the couple that featured sexual activities, consumption of alcohol and exchanging of sexual toys as gifts.”
CAS examining internal policies after convictions
[The Belleville Intelligencer 11/3/11 by W. Brice McVicar]
Update: Hand-wringing about reputations instead letting this be a wake-up call.
“The head of the agency has penned a soon to be published letter to the editor to The Intelligencer, highlighting his concern on how the recent publicity of the sexual abuse charges in Prince Edward County could pose a threat to the stability of the Hastings County foster care system.
Len Kennedy, executive director for the Hastings Children’s Aid Society, said the letter is aimed at shielding Hastings foster parents from being tainted by the wrongdoing of “one bad apple.”
“We do worry about the impact that it has on the people who steadfastly and properly fulfill their role in caring for kids,” he said.
The note is also intended to soothe public concern about Hastings CAS’s stance on the system collapse in the county.
While saying the Hastings body has not been the recipient of any public “heat,” to date, over the matter, the plan is to avert the chances of that flaring up.
“It could happen anywhere,” he said. “We all need to be equally interested in how we can improve the system and guard against these serious events.”
He said the agency is “sensitive to both the communities” understanding of the system as well as being “very concerned” about Hastings foster parents being “tainted by the actions of one foster couple who appeared to be inclined to exploit the children.”
Kennedy raised the contentious topic during Wednesday night’s general meeting at the agency’s Dundas Street West headquarters.
He said while complaints do arise, the Hastings branch has yet to be rocked by such a heinous breach of trust and safety since his stint at the helm.
“There’s been nothing of this nature in our jurisdiction in recent years,” he said.
He said the letter is aimed at ensuring that the public is aware of that fact, while informing them of the checks and balances that do exist to protect children.
The letter provides an in-depth explanation of all the existing safeguards and provisions aimed at protecting children in foster care.
It underscores the procedures that govern screening, training and monitoring of all foster parents managing the 180 foster homes overseen by the Hastings CAS.
While steering away from commenting on the specifics of the case, Kennedy supports the idea of an independent review, which he said is often done to investigate a myriad of issues that might arise.
“We do benefit from having our work put through a review process when serious events have happened,” he said. “We all want for the systems to be stronger and for no other child to be exploited in that way.”
A local superior court judge called for a public inquiry into the operational breach that resulted in the abuse of two dozen teenagers.
“I’m not going to second guess or comment on the judges instructions,” Kennedy said. “A judge who has heard all the evidence can make that kind of suggestion.”
The conviction on Nov. 2 stemmed from the Bloomfield couple transforming their home into a “sexual cult” while fostering 25 teenagers over the course of nine years.
Joe and Janet Holm plead guilty to several charges including possession of child pornography, sexual assault and invitation to sexual touching earlier this fall. Janet, 48, will serve three years in prison while Joe, 45, received a sentence of four years in prison. Both are also included on the Sex Offender Registry and had to provide a DNA sample. ”
‘One bad apple’ shouldn’t tarnish all foster parents: Hastings CAS executive director
[The Belleville Intelligencer 11/9/11 by Jason Miller]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update 2:“Two of the former foster parents initially targeted in the claim were Walter Joseph Holm, 46, and his wife, Janet Holm, 49.
They pleaded guilty to several charges, including possession of child pornography, sexual assault and invitation to sexual touching and were sentenced in November 2011 to four- and three-year prison terms respectively.
Three of the five plaintiffs, now ages 21, 23, and 19, are linked to the Holms. It’s not known if they were the three of five now concluded.
Justice Geoff Griffin blasted the Holms for turning their home into a “sexual cult” while fostering 25 teenagers over the course of nine years.
The three plaintiffs further implied that PECCAS was “vicariously liable for the actions” of the Holms”
Three CAS cases settled[Intelligencer 10/21/14 by Jason Miller]
Update 3:“The 15-year-old girl was seeking refuge when she came to Janet and Joe Holm’s house in the mid-2000s. The couple lived in a big white farmhouse on a sprawling property just minutes outside Bloomfield, Ont., a village in Prince Edward County dotted with well-manicured homes from the 1800s.
M.K. had been previously sexually abused when she arrived at the Holms’ as a foster child, hoping to find a safe, stable home. Instead, her stay turned into a nightmare. The couple groomed her under the guise of trying to heal her. They dressed her up, made her watch porn, and eventually she was sexually assaulted by Joe.
M.K’s story is not unique. The Holms would eventually be convicted of treating the wards in their care as sexual playthings. Joe pleaded guilty to the sexual assaults of three foster girls in the home, and Janet pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation, one count of permitting a person under 18 to engage in sexual activity in her home and one count of possession of child pornography in relation to three foster children in the home. Both were sentenced to jail in 2011.
A Global News investigation shows what happened at the Holm house was not an isolated case, but one of several foster homes chosen by the now-defunct Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society where foster parents were convicted of abusing children between 2002 and 2010.
Some say the abuse discovered in foster homes across the county went undetected for so long due to systemic failures at the Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society. The judge who presided over the Holms’ criminal case called the abuse so outrageous that he hoped a public inquiry would be launched.
In April 2018, three years after the last conviction in the Prince Edward County abuse cases, OPP charged the former executive director of Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society, Bill Sweet, with 10 counts of neglect and 10 counts failing to provide the necessities of life.
Sgt. Carolle Dionne, provincial media relations coordinator, said when Sweet was charged, he never fostered any children of his own, but oversaw a Children’s Aid Society where several foster children were abused.
His preliminary hearing begins next month.
“Mr. Sweet intends to vigorously defend these charges. It would be inappropriate for him to comment further,” said his lawyer William MacDowell.
Meanwhile, the situation begs the question: has Children’s Aid done enough to ensure something like this never happens again?
What happened at the Holms’ house?
Two years before M.K. arrived, another girl, M.R., was also placed in Janet and Joe’s home at the age of 15. She said she was only meant to stay for a weekend after becoming violent towards her mother. Police were called, and Children’s Aid became involved.
Despite claiming to come from a fairly stable family, she stayed with the Holms for about five years. M.R. said she chose to live with the couple rather than her mother, who fought the whole time to get her back, because the Holms made her believe she was better off with them. M.R. also claims the Children’s Aid Society never made an effort to reconnect her with her family.
According to court documents from their sentencing hearing, between 2001 to 2010, Joe and Janet had 25 teens come through their home. The teens were allowed to drink, talk openly about sex and have sex with each other, but were still encouraged to have strong academics and participate in family activities.
As M.K. described it, sexuality was deliberately woven into the fabric of the family.
In the early days, Janet would set up photo shoots for her, dressing her in bathing suits and having her pose suggestively on the pool table, M.K. says
M.K. and M.R. described how the foster family would regularly watch porn together. For Christmas, along with regular teen stuff, the girls say they would receive sexual paraphernalia.
“I, for Christmas, received a penis straw, penis candy, a belly button ring of people having sex, sex lube oil [and] a silk nightie,” M.R. said.
M.K., M.R. and three other complainants, whom Global News has not identified, filed a civil suit against the Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society in 2013. Children’s Aid settled with each of the women in the civil suits, who signed non-disclosure agreements, forbidding them from discussing the amount they received from the child welfare agency.
According to the statement of claim, Janet seemed to favour M.K.
M.K. says Janet would watch porn alone with her and also hand out her contact information to men in the area.
“She thought that was hilarious. I was at that point 16, 17 years old and there were people in the community that were messaging me and talking about very inappropriate sexual things with me.”
Joe was allegedly more overt in his pursuit of the girls. He was seemingly obsessed with M.R.’s breasts, according to the statement of claim. The document alleges that he repeatedly complimented her breasts and took photos of her chest while she was clothed. The document also details how Joe would brush up against her, so that he could fondle her.
But Joe had his sights on M.K. The court documents describe how he forced her to watch a sex tape of him and Janet, allegedly assuring her the couple had previously had sex with other foster children.
The same document claims that Joe would grab M.K.’s “buttocks and breasts at parties with pornographic material being viewed on the TV in the presence of many other people.”
This would have happened at one of Janet and Joe’s many “sex parties.”
In court documents from Janet and Joe’s sentencing hearing in 2011, Assistant Crown Attorney Jodi Whyte described the parties where foster children would entertain Janet and Joe’s friends through a game of pool.
It wasn’t normal pool.
“The loser would have a penalty,” according to the documents. “The penalties would be kissing someone or flashing someone, doing a lap dance or strip tease and ultimately sometimes resulted in one of the girls performing fellatio on someone.”
Who knew about the abuse?
When Bill Sweet was charged last year, OPP didn’t say much about why the charges were laid, other than “he ought to have known better.”
Sweet’s preliminary hearing begins July 8, and his lawyer, William MacDowell, said Sweet declined to be interviewed.
Both M.K. and M.R. said it was clear someone knew something was going on at the Holms’ house.
M.K. alleges Sweet was more interested in “making face with the Ministry” than he was believing reports of the foster children in his care.
“So, Bill Sweet was very much aware of these things, they weren’t necessarily taken seriously. He felt like children weren’t necessarily credible,” M.K. said.
Even Justice Geoffrey Griffin, in his decision in the Holms case, said repeatedly that he could not see how the Children’s Aid Society was unaware of the abuse.
The idea that the Children’s Aid Society didn’t know or, or shouldn’t have been aware that something was going on, is hard for me to accept.”
M.R. said because Bloomfield was such a small village — 2016 Census data has the population at just over 500 people — the Holms’ sexual tendencies were no secret.
“So within town, everybody always was like, ‘Oh, there’s that foster family. I can’t believe they basically let them have kids,’” M.R. said.
But the family looked good on paper. The Holms’ foster children had excellent grades, and Janet and Joe were one of the few people that would accept teen foster children in the county.
Nevertheless, both women say Children’s Aid simply failed to act, despite several warning signs.
Both women recalled one instance involving another foster child who complained to Children’s Aid about Joe forcing her to cuddle on the couch.
“I witnessed this and she had repeatedly said, ‘I don’t want to cuddle on the couch with you.’ It wasn’t just like you and your dad cuddling, it was very, very inappropriate,” M.K. said.
When a Children’s Aid employee came to investigate, M.K. said they simply told Joe to stop cuddling the children. This, M.K. said, normalized the abuse even more.
M.R. felt the workers did not do their due diligence when they came to the home for their checkups. But since the turnover for caseworkers was high, it was hard for them to keep a critical eye on the home.
When the workers did come to the home, about every three months according to M.R., they would often do a quick check and spend most of their time at the door talking to Joe.
“The foster parents would be there too. So even if there were any an issue you weren’t going to say anything,” M.R. said.
Janet refused to be interviewed for the story but sent Global a Facebook message, claiming Joe was responsible for what happened with the foster children, despite her conviction.
“I’ve had no contact with Joe. We have gone through the courts. We are divorced, after I found out things that had happened I divorced him. I paid the price for stuff I didn’t do.”
Janet has also written a series of books, the first of the three volumes was published in 2016, under the pen name Paisley Swindon. The series details her destructive relationship with Joe, whom she describes as a “narcissistic sociopath.”
Global News was not able to reach Joe for comment.
But M.K. and M.R. maintain that Janet was the puppeteer in the household. It was Janet who built the girls up and tore them down, pit them against each other and made them fight for her love, according to M.K. and M.R.
“She would begin to isolate you if she began to feel jealous of you,” M.K. said. “You were always trying to be there for Janet, to support Janet, that you were the favourite, and make sure you weren’t forgotten, because if you were forgotten about that was almost worse.”
According to both women, Janet ran a cliquey household. Some of the teens would even describe it as a sexual cult, a name that stuck with the Holms’ house through the criminal proceedings and afterward in the county’s memory of the events.
M.K. said it was hard to know where she stood. One moment, she said, Janet would be putting her down about her weight, or creating division between the foster children. The next, M.K. said Janet would be building her up, acting as a friend and a counsellor.
“It was all about me being empowered, that’s kind of how it was spun to me — ‘you’re a beautiful young girl, you’ve had all these awful things happen in your lifetime, we need to empower you,’” M.K. told Global News.
The sexual assault
It was M.K.’s sexual assault that brought the Holms down, an assault M.K. believes was orchestrated by Janet.
Due to an incident of past abuse, M.K. says she felt most vulnerable while showering. M.K. said Janet specifically focused on this fear, to get her to stop locking herself in the bathroom while she showered.
“She literally found everything about my past traumas from being a child, and when the abuse happened with me… it was almost literally set up to be that,” M.K. told Global News.
According to the civil suit, one day in 2010, Joe showed up in the bathroom while M.K. was showering.
“He approached the shower and opened the door and I remember getting out and reaching for a towel to cover myself,” M.K. told Global News.
The statement of claim described the sexual assault. When M.K. stepped out of the shower, he asked her to perform oral sex on him. She did but stopped before he ejaculated. He then came back to her later that day and forced her to do it again.
M.K. said Joe kept coming back, demanding she perform oral sex on him. It became too much to bear.
In the late spring of 2010, M.K. says she reported the abuse to her case worker, who called Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society executive director Bill Sweet right away.
She said she could hear Sweet asking pointed questions: “How do you know she’s not making this up? How do you know she’s credible?”
“It was just crazy to me because even if I’m not a credible person, you still have to take those accusations seriously.”
M.K. says she can’t remember who called police, if it was her caseworker or Sweet, but her report of sexual abuse launched a police investigation.
The rest of the foster children were taken out of the home. Joe eventually pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting M.K., and two other girls in the home, and five women would end up filing a civil suit against the Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society for abuse they claim they endured in the Holm’s house.
The first of many
The Holms would be the first domino to fall in the string of abuse cases discovered at foster homes in Prince Edward County.
Soon after, Roy Minister, a then-71-year-old Bloomfield man, was found guilty of molesting two girls in his foster care over several years.
Then 46-year-old Richard Fildey of Cameron, Ont., was sentenced to over two years in prison for sexually assaulting a female foster child.
His now ex-wife, Sherilee Slatter, was convicted next, of the sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy and sexually assaulting a teenage girl, who was a foster child in her father’s residence.
Charges of sexual assault, interference and exploitation were laid against Ronald Slatter, Sherilee’s father, then 65, but those were stayed, because there were problems with the case.
While the criminal cases were unfolding, Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society was absorbed by Highland Shores Children’s Aid Society on a recommendation from the what was then called the Ministry of Children and Youth Services. The decision was made jointly by the board of directors of the Hastings, Northumberland and Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Societies in early 2011 and the amalgamation came into effect in 2013. After amalgamation, Bill Sweet did not continue on with the Children’s Aid Society.
According to Nicholas Bala, a Queen’s University Law professor and expert in issues related to children, youth and families in the justice system, what happened in Prince Edward County was deeply concerning.
He believes the string of abuses need to be properly investigated in order to tell if any systemic issues within the child welfare agency allowed them to happen.
“Clearly, those who did the acts are those who are appropriately most accountable, but there’s also a social and systemic responsibility to look into it to see who was not doing a good enough job in supervising, who was not accessible enough to children who had concerns,” Bala said.
All in all, Bala said it’s up to the Ministry to ensure sexual abuses like the ones that took place in Prince Edward County never happen again.
“Those who are victims have a right to know that things like that will not re-occur, to get a sense that everyone who was responsible has been held accountable in some way,” Bala said.
In fact, the province did conduct an operational review of the Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society in December 2011, after some of the abuse allegations were brought forward. The review was not released to the public, but Global News has obtained a redacted copy of it.
The review detailed numerous shortcomings with the agency, including significant difficulty in meeting standards when screening foster parents.
In one home, 11 incidents, including claims of sexual molestation, were alleged. The report noted only two of the allegations were investigated, and neither were verified.
Reviewers made a point of noting they did not investigate management during the operational review.
Seven years after that review, in 2018, before Sweet was charged, M.K. and M.R. were notified that OPP would be bringing a criminal case against him. Both immediately consented to have their testimonials from the criminal and civil cases used in the case against Sweet.
After her abuse, M.K. said she felt alone, and especially abandoned by Sweet, who she says never once spoke to her after she came forward about her abuse. She says that Janet and Joe harassed her after she came forward. It took a lot of work and therapy to get herself to the place she is now.
M.K. actually volunteered with Highland Shores Children’s Aid as she got older, and still has faith that the system can help children.
But she can’t help but shake the feeling that Children’s Aid has never fully acknowledged what happened to her and to the other children over a decade ago in Prince Edward County.
“All I really wanted them to say was, ‘We’re really sorry this happened to you.’ And to this day that’s all I really want, and to this day that hasn’t happened.””
Teen ‘sexual cult’ in Ontario foster home known to Children’s Aid Society, victim says
[Global News 6/12/19 by Alexandra Mazur and Kraig Krause]
I wonder why everyone seems shocked about this story and the fact that the CAS did nothing to save these children. This has been going on for many years in Prince Edward County. I was once in care and was abused by my foster parents. We had little food, our clothes were dirty. We had to bathe in the same water the rest of the children had used. It was disgusting. I was hit, sexually abused. I was so depressed I even tried to overdose but I did not get hospital care. I was only hit more and told not to talk about it. The foster mother would wrap the wet sheets around another girls head and make her leave them on all day if she wet her bed. Sometimes they would go away for days and leave us. There was lots of drugs, booze and sex…..no one cared. That was thirty years ago and the County and CAS knew what was going on in the Holm's residence. I think YES….there needs to be an inquiry !!!
We are sorry to hear about the lack of care that occurred in the foster home that you were in. Have you been able to report this to any authority? Do they even listen?
No on in that particular office listens to a child's complaints. I was fifteen and my mother stopped at the foster home to visit. When she got there the foster parents had been away for day. The house was filthy and we had been partying for days. When my mother saw the goat urine that was running and pooling on the one side of the kitchen floor from the goat that stayed in the kitchen she took me from the house and we left. The CAS never questioned her. She never got a phone call to see where I was. I guess the office wanted to keep that quiet also. I wasn't there because my parents didn't love me and provide me with a good home. I was in care because I wasn't attending school on a regular basis. I really hope to see an inquiry as I think the CAS should be held accountable for the children that should have been protected.
I do know of some other foster homes in Prince Edward County that are not very good homes. The children that go to these homes are most often afraid to tell or complain. They also don't see their workers that often and who would take their complaints seriously. I think after a while children almost expect to be treated this way. For many that is all they have known. Not to say they do not feel hurt and confused. I do believe there are some caring people out that have opened up their homes to help but I do know for a fact that the Holm's residence is not an isolated case. Perhaps if an inquiry is done….It should be the children that they get the answers from.
I understand. I was living in a group home agency called Mary Homes in Orleans, Ottawa. I saw a kid get stabbed and sexually assulted by another youth which never got charged. A youth previously commuted suicide in the agency as well. And the fact that the government hasn’t done anything to resolve this 10 years later proves something.
Has anyone even considered that the wife in this case was bullied into a guilty plea – the crown threatened to bring charges against her own children stating that while the charges would eventually be thrown out, the accusations alone would tarnish and stain their reputations and in turn ruin their lives….what Mother wouldn't want to protect her kids. what her husband did was unthinkable and indeed he should be in jail, but to punnish the wife on pure "hear-say" of a couple of teens out to sue the CSA ?? These accusations were false against the Mother and made purely for monitary gain. I have NO faith in our justice system.
I think it’s so unfair how this all played out. Each of these children that claim abuse lived with the Holms for at least 4 years. They met with their worker on a monthly basis and each time were asked if anything inappropriate was going on in the home. Each replied they loved it there and we’re adamant they not be removed. Children only ever left the home to go to college or move out independently. The Holms kept very difficult teens away from drugs which most had a problem with but also managed to keep the majority of kids in their care in school. Any children in their care were spoiled with thousands of dollars at Christmas while the society only provided 300 per child the rest came out of the personal funds of the Holms. Each child was taught to drive in the personal vehicles of the Holms and were given drivers ed. They all got their watercraft licence. Some older teens were permitted to have a couple of drinks while supervised at New Years. Each year the picton Cas used the Holms residence as a model home when their supervisors came from out of town. The mention of a sexual cult was ludicrous. This comment was made by os who only resided with the Holms for approximately 2 years. There was no sexual abuse towards this girl ever. Her claims in the law suit and the only claim she was able to make was Mr. HOLM was getting ready for work and os was standing by the kettle at the kitchen counter and when he unplugged the kettle his forearm brushed by her breast. He didn’t want her to be embarrassed so made a joke about it and said Thanks and laughed. This is all that ever took place surrounding OS yet she calls the residence a sexual cult for that and the press ran with that statement. As far as MK she was 2 months from being 19 and pursued Mr. HOLM for over a year a fact that she admitted to while on the stand at the preliminary hearing. Mr. HOLM did receive consensual oral sex from MK a fact which she later changed once Mrs Holm found out about what happened. MK was very promiscuous a problem that Mrs Holm had helped her with for over 4 years in fact when the Holms took a vacation to Mexico MKs aunt had to take her to the crises Centre at Belleville general hospital because she couldn’t stand being away from Mrs Holm even for a week. When she said Mr Holm guilted her into it she flat out lied. MR lived with the Holms for 4 years and only left to go to college. After her first year of college Mr and Mrs Holm were separated and MR moved into a 2 bedroom apartment with Mr. HOLM. While living there he bought her a car as she needed one. A car which she was never asked to pay for. She was quite happy living there and in fact asked if she could move in again with him the next summer
Does this sound like a girl mistreated in any way. The only claim she could come up with was that she said when he bought her the car she could someday flash him. This never took place and was never even brought to light until she heard MK was suing for a large amount of money. As far as Mrs Holm MK made up a story that Mrs Holm gave oral sex to a male foster child which never took place and I believe was MKS way of getting even for Mrs Holm not leaving her husband when she found out what happened. So basically those are the facts. At the preliminary hearing the lawyer of the Holms advised that most charges would be dropped and the crown attorney certainly didn’t want that so she did what she had to in order to get her guilty plea. The charge of possession of child pornography was rediculous at best. THE son of the Holms took some naked pictures of his girlfriend when they were 23 and put them on a disc and requested that Mrs Holm lock it up for him for safe keeping so she did. When the police searched the home they found the disc and discovered there were 4 pictures on the disc that her son had taken of his girlfriend 2 weeks before she and he turned 18. They have been together since grade 3 and still live together today. But the crown wanted a guilty plea and wanted to portray the Holms in as bad a light as she could. She came to them and said they either accept the deal of 3 1/2 years each or she was going to charge Mrs Holms son with production of child pornography and she had both of them on tape saying Mrs Holm didn’t take the pictures they did and that he would get an automatic 2 years in prison. As a mother and father what would you do other than have to take the deal. Go to jail yourself or send your child? Mr Holm tried to accept most of the sentence but the crown would only allow 3 for Mrs Holm and 4 for Mr Holm. They were not given a choice. There home was absolutely not abusive in any way and now they are not only being shunned by the small community they reside in but have been forced to be apart for almost 4 years and now are being sued for 14 million dollars so they will never own anything again. All of this because MK didn’t get her way. What a price to pay. Both MK and OS have accused others in the past of rape in fact MKS own aunt advised Mrs. Holm that MK had a history of this and she refused to leave her husband in the same room as MK. The saddest part of all of this besides 2 people who gave up their home to these children having to go to a federal prison is that Mrs Holm took great pride in what she was doing for over 10 years and now is branded a child molester rather than be praised for never giving up on one child. CAS even told Mrs Holm on more than one occasion that they brought all the difficult teens to her because she had a way with teens that no one else could handle. Now hearing the actual facts and not what was printed in the papers to which the Holms were never allowed to defend because they were blackmailed by our so called justice system into pleading guilty and taking the fall maybe just maybe you will cone away with a different perspective.
Continued. They have been together since grade 3 and still live together today. The crown offered what she considered a deal that the Holms plead guilty to whatever 3 charges she picked and serve 3 1/2 years each. She said if the Holms didn’t take the deal she would be charging the son of Mrs Holm with production of child pornography and that she had him on tape saying he took the pictures not Mrs Holm and that he would serve an automatic 2 years in federal prison. As a parent what would you do? They were left with no alternative but to take the deal. Mr Holm tried to take the bulk of the sentence but the crown would only allow 3 years for Mrs Holm and 4 years for Mr Holm. Yhe Holms were never even allowed to challenge what was printed in the papers by the prosecution because they pled guilty. How fair is that. So instead of being praised for 10 years of service being more than generous with these kids they are now shunned by the entire small community they live in, have been forced to live together for almost 4 years and to top it all off they are now being sued for 14 million dollars by these so called abused children. So now they can never own anything again. So just what does this story now that the truth is finally being spoken say about our wonderful justice system? Maybe now that you have heard the actual facts actually happened maybe just maybe you will come away with a little different point of view. I certainly hope so.
Your unverifiable claims do not constitute “the facts of this case”.
Giving the children in their care expensive presents and taking them on snazzy vacations doesn’t prove that the Holms are automatically innocent. Sexual predators are known to use such methods to gain psychological power over their victims. Giving minors alcohol illegally or enticing them into other rule-breaking is another well-documented “grooming” technique.
If your hand accidentally brushes someone else’s body in a sensitive area, the appropriate response is to apologize, not minimize the transgression with a joke. How is is saying “Whoops! Sorry.” MORE embarrassing to the victim than saying “Thanks!” and laughing?
Completely agree with everything you have said Janet and I back you 100% because like you I know how it was in the house I was there myself many times
Janet Turner Holm previously and currently Janet Colangelo is the same Janet who commented above. The fact that she still denies the actions of herself and her husband shows how incredibly ridiculous she is. The story depicted above is so far from the truth I could almost vomit. They are guilty, guilty, guilty and should be ostracized for the pigs that they are. Shame on you Janet Colangelo and your lying ways. I hope Karma bites your ass you useless, lying piece of shit.
Janet Turner Holm goes by Janet Colangelo on Facebook now but has legally changed her name to Janet Sanderson. She’s working at a call-center in Trenton, which probably doesn’t know about her criminal past. I don’t think her and her husband should have ever been able to see the light of day. The judge should have locked these monsters up and thrown away the key. She’s also written a few books on Amazon.com about the situation painting herself as the victim – a disgusting ploy. Her books are under the name Paisley Swindon – Walter Joseph Holm’s first wife’s surname. Who does that – writing a book using their husband’s ex’s last name as their pen name? Those people are so twisted, I don’t think they feel any guilt. Someday they’ll have to answer to God for all of the harm they did to those girls. As far as I’m concerned they’re both certifiably insane. I don’t know how they can live with themselves after everything they’ve done.
If anyone truly knows Joey Holmes they know exactly what he is like and that is not like how he is being portrayed by all this bullshit. I totally agree with the comments that Janet has written in this, I myself was a huge part of the Holmes family and yes Joey liked to joke around and say things that I will admit sometimes were not proper BUT everyone knew that he was kidding around. Janet is correct about the kid’s living there for four years and not having a problem with it and why because like it is supposed to happen the Holmes actually spent the money they received on their faster children and received everything that they wanted or needed. And as for MK she went to her foster mother Janet and talked to her about whether she was a lesbian or bisexual herself. Janet Holmes explained to her that she couldn’t tell her that it’s something that MK had to figure out herself and the reason for me knowing that she because Janet asked me knowing that I am gay myself about how she should answer MK. Yes they had party’s everyone had house party’s back in the day and of course they would let the kids have a drink and what’s wrong with that? As long as they kept the kid’s safe and didn’t let them leave the house after that then why hold that against them? Because I don’t doubt that everyone has allowed under aged kid’s drink while they’re at home and if you say you never have then you are either lieing or a Jehovah’s Witnesse. People are blaming Joey for everything that was supposed to have happened in that house but did it occur to you all that Joey was hardly home since he was a truck driver and on the road 90% of his time? Again if you truly know the Holmes you would know that. Joey gave everything he could to his wife anything Janet wanted she received. That’s why he built the house of her dreams and bought her the car of her dreams. And didn’t occur to anyone that Janet is the narcissist and the fact that Joey was wrapped around her finger that he would do anything to protect her? Like taking the rap for all this bullshit? I know them and I have known both of them for many many years and I believe that Joey is innocent and if he wasn’t so much in love with his ex wife at the time this would never have happened to him. And anyone who hung around with us all back then deep down inside yourself you know that is the TRUTH.
Janet Turner Holm Sanderson Colangelo just never stops. Now she’s known on Facebook as Janet Faith (https://www.facebook.com/janet.faith.1806), and at this time she thinks she’s a ghost whisperer. Nothing has changed – she’s still a nut and honestly, the authorities should have banned her from social media. At the present time, she’s trying to get people who think their house might be haunted to let her walk through it so she can tell them where the “energies” are coming from. I’d rather deal with the spirit of a ghost in my house than to let a convicted child predator walk through my doors any day. She can’t feel spirits any more than she can feel empathy for the girls she harmed. Here’s a link to our dear Janet Faith begging people to let her walk through their house so she can tell them about the spirits that are haunting them – https://www.facebook.com/groups/141490206668705/permalink/680868012730919/. As you read through her comments in that thread, you’ll realize that she is truly deranged. I certainly hope that no one with teenagers heeds her call. She shouldn’t be allowed to frequent community groups on Facebook or anywhere else without revealing her true identity. Hopefully, nobody, especially those with impressionable teenagers, lets her into their home. What’s worse – I have no doubt she’ll be charging for these services before too long, if she isn’t already. I can’t believe that she gets away with this crap. Shame on her.
Hi Melissa.
I see your bitterness hasn’t changed.
You really should do you and not spend so much time focusing on my life.
Your lies here are no different than those you told for a big payout.
Grow up, you can say whatever you want, you and I were both there and you know the real truth inside, only it wasn’t as lucrative as a house mortgage free plus.
We all know you blew the judge to get minimum sentencing cuz sex is all u care about. You raped a girl for 3 years straight and only got a 3 year sentence? Then u go around saying your innocent after pleading to your crimes. Anyone who wants to talk about this can message me on ig at therealog.420.
Marissa can we talk?
Email me at Kennethbrianjackson (@) gmail.com.