How Could You? Hall of Shame-Canada-Katelynn Sampson case-Child Death 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 Toronto, Canada, “[t]he foster parents of a murdered seven-year-old Toronto girl were sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday.

Katelynn Sampson’s death shocked the city when her body was discovered in a Parkdale apartment building where she lived with her foster parents in the summer of 2008. She was said to have suffered extreme abuse under the couple’s care.

On Tuesday, Sampson’s foster parents Donna Irving, 33, and Warren Johnson, 50, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the girl’s death after initially being charged with first-degree murder.

They were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years.

In his sentencing reasoning, Justice John McMahon called the murder “brutal, cruel and inhumane.”

He added that a lack of action on the part of the Children’s Aid Society and Native Child and Family Services of Toronto was surprising.

“The alarm bells were ringing, but no one was responding,” McMahon said. “If someone had, we wouldn’t be in this courtroom this afternoon. ”

Foster parents of Katelynn Sampson get life sentence
[CP 24 News 5/1/12 by Paul Johnston]

“When Toronto police searched the home where Katelynn died on Aug. 3, 2008, after prolonged physical abuse, they found a piece of paper on which the little girl had printed a heartwrenching sentence 62 times:

“I am A awful girl that’s why know one wants me.”

While Katelynn was “edging closer to death” in the couple’s small Parkdale apartment, Johnson went to the beer store not once but twice, and Irving went out for a walk, rather than seek medical attention.

“The utter disregard for that child’s health and welfare is shocking and inhumane,” Superior Court Justice John McMahon said in sentencing the pair.

“Crown attorney Hank Goody read an agreed statement of facts that included a litany of disturbing and horrific details of the 70 different wounds found on Katelynn’s body — all inflicted after she moved in with the couple.”

“When Irving told the Children’s Aid Society on March 30, 2008, that she did not think she could provide for Katelynn and wanted her out of her home, the agency “passed the buck” to the Native Child and Family Services — Irving is part First Nations — and nothing was done, McMahon stated. (When a Native Services caseworker contacted Irving 16 days later, she lied and indicated the Toronto School Board was providing support and that she wanted the file closed, which it was.)

“Alarm bells were ringing and no one was responding,” McMahon said. “If someone had, we would not be here in this courtroom.”

Katelynn moved in with Irving and Johnson and their two young sons in May 2007 after her mother, Bernice Sampson, asked Irving, a friend, to take care of her daughter because she was addicted to crack cocaine. Sampson promised to pay her $200 a month.

But rather than receiving a loving sanctuary, Katelynn wound up resented by her cash-strapped legal guardians, who complained to social workers and teachers about “discipline issues” and whined about her being a financial burden.

By 2008, Katelynn’s school attendance at Parkdale Public School was increasingly erratic and, when she did show up, her Grade 2 teacher noticed bruising on her arms and legs. On another occasion, a principal also noted bruising and red marks on her hands. Katelynn said she was helping her parents cook spaghetti when hot water spilled on her hands.

After May 1, she didn’t show up to any classes until the end of the school year — absences Irving covered up with lies to school authorities about the family going to care for a recently widowed uncle on a native reserve in Northern Ontario.

Despite the problems, Irving pressed ahead seeking full custody of Katelynn.

According to medical evidence, Katelynn was already suffering horrific physical abuse when Ontario Court Justice Debra Paulseth legally sanctioned her living arrangement with the unemployed couple on June 6, 2008.

Goody told court while it may have been a coincidence, there appeared to be an “acceleration of injury infliction” after the couple received a government letter in July that could have been “misinterpreted” to mean no more child care benefits for Katelynn were forthcoming.

On the long holiday weekend in August, Irving refused to give Sampson permission to take her daughter to Caribana.

Then, on Aug. 3 at 2:30 a.m., Irving called 911, asking for help.

“We need emergency. My daughter choked and I think she died … I was in the bedroom and she was eating bread and she choked and she’s dead,” Irving told a 911 operator.

When paramedics arrived at the apartment at 105 Westlodge Ave., they found a little girl lying on the living room floor covered head-to-toe in bruises. She was already dead.

“All I want to know is why,” a tearful Sampson said reading her victim impact statement.

Crown attorney Nicole Bailey read a victim impact statement submitted by Mark Letang, Katelynn’s biological father.

“I’m ashamed to show my face. I feel like I’m being blamed,” his statement said. “I feel like I’ve lost my mind.”

Wearing a green sweatshirt and pants, her long brown hair tied into a ponytail, Irving wept and asked Sampson to forgive her, something she says she’s unable to do herself.

“I wish every day this happened to me and not to her,” Irving sobbed. “For the rest of my life that little girl will haunt me. I’m so sorry Bernice,” she said, turning around in the prisoner’s box to look at Sampson.

Johnson also apologized. “Katelynn deserved to be loved … I take responsibility for my part.”

Katelynn’s death ignited a firestorm in 2008 after it was revealed Irving got full custody despite chronic drug use and criminal convictions for prostitution, narcotics and violence. The Ontario Judicial Council later dismissed a complaint against the family court judge.

During the sentencing portion of Tuesday’s hearing, Irving’s lawyer, Daniel Brodsky, outlined his client’s tragic history. Irving’s mother, who is native, introduced her to alcohol when she was 7 and by age 12 she had been raped and was doing crack.

Outrage over the circumstances led the Ontario government to introduce child custody reforms requiring non-parents applying for custody to provide a police background check as part of their application.

Forensic examination of the Irving/Johnson apartment found Katelynn’s blood in every room, in closets, and in the main hallway that connected the living room with the bathroom and bedrooms, on surfaces including walls, floors, doors and furnishings, he said.

“The only reasonable inference I can draw was she was in the linen closet, in that small space,” McMahon said.

The Crown is unable to prove whether it was Irving or Johnson who caused the injuries to Katelynn, Goody said, adding the Crown is not required to do so. “Under our law, Ms Irving is accountable for Katelynn’s death because she failed to fulfill the duty of care she owed,” Goody said. “Mr. Johnson is likewise accountable for Katelynn’s death.”

McMahon noted that addition to the appalling physical injuries inflicted on Katelynn, she was also a victim of neglect and psychological cruelty.

Among the items found in Katelynn’s sparsely furnished bedroom was a paperback book titled The Devil’s Chimney. On the underside, which was stained with Katelynn’s blood, Irving had printed:
Katelynn is the devil’s kid
Because she never listens
She smells bad because she never has a bath
Katelynn has died eyes, and a died soul, heart and brain.

The couple’s two sons, toddlers when Katelynn was living under the same roof, suffered no physical abuse and are now in foster care, the court was told.”


Katelynn Sampson: Guardians sentenced to life in prison for murdering 7-year-old Toronto girl
[The Toronto Star 5/1/12 by Betsy Powell]

“She suffered a “litany of approximately 70 external and internal injuries, including bruising, contusions, abrasions, lacerations and fractures to virtually every part of her body,” an autopsy by Dr. David Chiasson revealed.

Katelynn’s liver lobe was lacerated — an injury Chiasson likened to one suffered in a car accident — and its complications could have been fatal, said Crown attorney Hank Goody in reading an agreed statement of facts.

Many of Katelynn’s injuries required medical intervention, including two fractured bones in her left hand, a broken bone in her left foot, multiple rib fractures and and two serious open wounds to her lips.

Those wounds could have been the sites where untreated infections festered, leading to the septic shock that caused Katelynn’s death, court heard.

In the last two weeks of her life, Katelynn’s physical abuse was accelerated after the killer couple “received a government notice that could have been misinterpreted to be indicating there would be no future support benefits” for Katelynn, said Goody.

Both guardians displayed their glaring hatred for the child — who was removed from Parkdale Public School on May 1, 2008 and never returned, said Goody.”

Life in prison for murder of girl, 7
[Toronto Sun 5/1/12 by Sam Pazzano]

Previous Articles

Excerpts:

Det. Sgt. Steve “Ryan said when emergency workers found Katelynn’s body in an apartment in the west-end neighbourhood of Parkdale, there was evidence the Grade 3 student had been sleeping on the floor and had been subject to poor living conditions that he did not want to discuss.

“I saw probably the worst thing I’ve seen in 20 years of policing,” he said.”

“According to Ryan, Irving was granted sole custody of Katelynn in January, although she has had contact with the girl since May 2007.

Court documents obtained by CBC News show Irving took final custody of Katelynn in June. The documents said that both Katelynn’s mother, Bernise Sampson, and her father were drug addicts.

According to the documents, Irving said Katelynn had been living with her since May 2003.
Outside her west-end home Tuesday, Sampson said she was unaware of Irving’s violent past.”

“She said Monday that she put her daughter in Irving’s care while she sorted out some undisclosed personal problems. She and Irving had been friends for 10 years.

Irving has two children of her own; both are being cared for by their father.”

“He said it was too soon to say when Katelynn died, although it was clear when emergency workers found her that she had been dead for some time.

Irving called 911 early Sunday, claiming that Katelynn had stopped breathing after choking on food. Ryan said Monday that it is clear Katelynn did not choke and that she had signs of assault across her entire body.

Child services agencies are investigating whether they played any role in placing Katelynn in Irving’s care, Ryan said.

Custody can be granted in some cases where the person has a criminal record, depending on the offence, according to an official with the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies.”

‘Disturbing’ details surround case of slain Toronto girl
[CBC 8/5/08]

“A native family services agency is reviewing its records to determine whether it played a part in placing 7-year-old Katelynn Sampson in the care of the woman now charged in her slaying.

“I’m still beginning my own review of my agency with respect to what our relationship was with this family and what the nature of our services were,” Kenn Richard, executive director of Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, said yesterday. “(I need) a chance to convene my people, look at the electronic database at the agency and just have a sense of if we’ve had activity and to what extent.”

Katelynn was found dead in an apartment in the Queen St. W. and Lansdowne Ave. area early Sunday, shortly after her legal guardian Donna Irving, 29, called 911 and claimed the little girl had stopped breathing while choking on food.

Irving was arrested and charged with second-degree murder after Toronto EMS arrived and saw signs of trauma on the victim’s body that contradicted the story.

Homicide Det. Sgt. Steve Ryan said Irving had been granted sole custody of Katelynn through family court in January of this year, although he was still trying to confirm how and why. He said Irving has a criminal record that involves “some violence.”

Richard said his agency, which provides support services to native families and works toward placing native children in “culturally appropriate” adoptive homes, is committed to finding out what happened.

“We received this information with profound sadness and we’ll do what we can at our agency to be as transparent as possible with respect to our involvement and to see what we can learn from something like this,” Richard said. “This is not our typical experience at Native Child, so I’m basically asking for some patience. Let me absorb this and have a look at the situation and whatever. It’s a terrible day for us.”

“A neighbourhood resident who works at a coffee shop at Queen St. W. and O’Hara Ave., around the corner from Bernice Sampson’s basement apartment and not too far from Irving’s apartment on West Lodge Ave., said her daughter was in the same Grade 2 class as Katelynn at Parkdale Public.

“Since January I didn’t see (Katelynn),” said the woman, who did not want to give her name.

“My daughter said she had lots of homework.”

Toronto District School Board spokesperson Kelly Baker said she could not release information from Katelynn’s student record, but did confirm the girl was registered as a student at the elementary school as of the end of this academic year.”

Why wasn’t Katelynn Sampson kept safe?
[The Toronto Star 8/5/08 by Joanna Smith and Deena Kamel]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 Inquest scheduled for child’s death seven years after her death
 [City News 8/13/15 by Charlene Close]

Update 2:”Her death in the summer of 2008 shocked the entire city.

At the time of her death, dozens of injuries were found on the body of 7-year old Katelynn Sampson:  broken bones, cuts and bruises, and various internal injuries.

Her legal guardians, who were friends of her mother, eventually pleaded guilty to second degree murder, and were sentenced to life in prison.

Almost 8 years later, a coroner’s inquest will begin in a Toronto courtroom, which will focus on the events leading up to Sampson’s death, and what public institutions did during her time with her guardians.

Recommendations may also be issued, to prevent similar tragedies from occurring.

The inquest is expected to last up to 5 weeks and include testimony from some 30 witnesses.”

Coroner’s Inquest Into Child’s Death Starts Today [640 Toronto 11/9/15 by Trina Trigiani]

“Police reports on domestic incidents involving a couple convicted of killing a seven-year-old Toronto girl in their care should be entered as evidence in the coroner’s inquest into the child’s death, according to Ontario’s advocate for children.

A notice of motion filed by the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth argues the reports provide crucial information that will help understand the circumstances that led to Katelynn Sampson’s death in 2008.

The motion relates to eight reports on domestic incidents during Donna Irving and Warren Johnson’s relationship, the last one three months before Katelynn came to stay with them.

It also includes five reports on domestic incidents from Irving’s previous relationship and 84 reports regarding Johnson alone. Police would not necessarily have filed charges in those incidents.

“The existence of these documents, the information they contained, who was aware of that information, to whom the information was communicated, and what actions were taken as a result of that awareness and communication are all relevant to the assessment of the risks presented by Irving and Johnson, the genesis of the violence experienced by Katelynn, and a meaningful analysis of how that violence could have been prevented,” the document read.

Police are expected to turn over the reports to the inquest Friday, but it’s unclear if or when the motion will be heard.

Katelynn’s mother, Bernice Sampson, was addicted to crack and gave her daughter to Johnson and Irving in a misguided attempt to give Katelynn a better life. Sampson’s other children had already become wards of the Crown and she did not want to lose access to Katelynn in the same way.

It was later revealed that a judge granted custody to Irving despite her criminal convictions for prostitution, drugs and violence. Johnson also had a several convictions.

Katelynn was beaten for months until she died from complications from her injuries. Her battered body was found in the pair’s apartment in the early hours of Aug. 3, 2008.

The couple pleaded guilty three years ago of second-degree murder in the girl’s death and were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years.

The inquest, which began Monday, has heard that two child welfare organizations — the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto and Native Child and Family Services — were contacted about Katelynn or had dealings with the pair while she was living with them.

Had they been aware of the police reports, those agencies might have taken a more aggressive approach, the motion argues.

“Receiving information about any and all police attendances at the home is essential to agencies if they are to effectively assess risk to children and plan services accordingly,” the document said.

Though the inquest focuses on the period between May 2007 and August 2008, “conflict and violence concerns go to assessment of risk and harm to children, and thus are not limited to the scope period,” it said.

“The question is whether knowledge of the conflict and domestic violence would have influenced child welfare workers and service delivery. … This is a critical issue in the Sampson inquest and may well lead to recommendations.”

The inquest is expected to last four weeks and hear from 30 witnesses.”

Cop reports on couple convicted of killing girl should be part of inquest: motion [CP24 11/13/15 by Paula Loriggio]

Update 3:“Eight years after her tragic death, Katelynn Sampson is making her mark.