More then seven years ago, a two-month-old baby was brought to Ste-Justine Hospital with a broken leg. Now, her parents are finally being held accountable.
At the time, doctors didn’t just find one injury – there were over 50 fractures across the infant’s body.
In court, the father admitted to assault, while the mother admitted to being negligent in caring for the child.
The father, now 36, received an 18-month sentence to be served under house arrest. The mother had already entered her guilty plea last year and is still waiting to hear her sentence.
The case goes back to November 2018, when the father injured the baby while changing her diaper.
He made a sudden, impatient movement that ended up hurting her leg. Though he realized something was wrong and tried to comfort her, he still left for school afterward, leaving the baby with her mother.
What followed was even more concerning.
The baby showed clear signs of injury; her leg was swollen and limp, but she wasn’t taken to the hospital for three days.
It wasn’t until the child’s grandmother pushed for medical attention that the mother finally brought her in.
Once at the hospital, doctors uncovered the full extent of the situation.
The fractures were at different stages of healing, meaning the child was involved in multiple incidents rather than a single accident.
Because of this, the child was ultimately removed from her parents’ care.
The father later acknowledged that he caused the broken leg, though he claimed he didn’t intend to hurt his daughter.
In the end, he chose to plead guilty; this meant he could avoid a lengthy court process. Later on, an assessment showed he’s not likely to do something like this again, and the judge took a few positive things into account when deciding his sentence.
The relationship between the parents had been unstable from the start.
The pregnancy was unplanned, and they had only known each other a short time before things became tense.
Arguments were frequent, and moving in together didn’t improve the situation.
After the baby was born, things got even more difficult.
The father struggled with depression and didn’t provide much support, while the mother felt overwhelmed and unsure of herself as a parent. She often felt exhausted and emotionally disconnected, sometimes even questioning her feelings toward her own child.
It eventually reached a point where she had no idea how to cope.
Fortunately, despite everything that the child went through early on, she’s now a healthy seven-year-old and living with foster parents.
