Manitoba teen who raped, killed 11 year old girl showed ‘no humanity’: judge – CP
Source: The Canadian Press
Feb 6, 2018
WINNIPEG _ A teenage boy from a northern Manitoba First Nation has been given the maximum youth sentence after admitting to carrying out what a judge called the stunningly cruel sexual assault and murder of an 11-year-old girl.
The 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced Monday to four years behind bars with a four-year conditional sentence to follow.
The Garden Hill First Nation resident, who can’t be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was given credit for two years already spent in custody as part of a plea bargain.
Court heard that in May 2015, he assaulted the girl in some woods before he killed her.
His lawyer suggested the teen thought he was having consensual sex _ even though an 11-year-old cannot legally consent _ then panicked and killed her.
The boy apologized to the girl’s family and his own, but did not shed any light on why he committed the crime.
“There was no humanity at play whatsoever with what happened here,” Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Chris Martin said as he imposed the 10-year total sentence.
“There was no concern, no caring, no respect, nothing for this young girl. Her feelings, her future, her safety, nothing. At the end of the day, you didn’t treat her like a person. You treated her like a thing.”
Court was told the girl, whose name remains under a publication ban, was last seen alive leaving a child’s birthday party. Her parents knew she would often sleep over at friends’ houses, so they weren’t concerned until they realized she didn’t show up for school.
A teacher reported her missing to Island Lake RCMP six days later and officers went to the remote community the same day to investigate. A community search team later found her body.
Initial reports suggested she had been mauled to death by wild animals, but investigators believed she was already dead by the time animals got to her body. They couldn’t determine how she died.
The boy, who was 15 at the time of the murder, was arrested in March 2016. After interviews and select DNA testing failed to lead to a suspect, the RCMP asked all men in Garden Hill between the ages of 15 and 50 to voluntarily submit a DNA sample for testing. They collected more than 215 DNA samples.
The teen gave a sample that matched the unknown suspect’s DNA, with only a one in 1.2 septillion chance of it belonging to someone else.
“He essentially hid in plain sight until such time as there was no more hiding because the forensic science pointed the finger directly at him,” Justice Martin said, commending the RCMP for their hard work.
“What happened here exemplifies the very highest tradition and expectations we have of that force, and they are to be commended for what they did, because without them and the advancement of science and DNA, this crime would go unsolved, more than likely,” said Martin. (Winnipeg Free Press)
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