Ontario couple 'abused, tortured and starved' boys in their care, Crown says in final arguments

closure arguments take up in caseful of Ontario boy allegedly killed by couple on trying to adopt him

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In his closing argument, MacGregor paraphrased foster parent Heather Walsh's testimony. He said she described the children as the worst she'd cared for, Frew notes. 

However, Frew says, Walsh mostly cared for infants, so it makes sense J.L. And L.L. Would be more challenging.

Walsh also spoke positively of the boys and never had to restrain them with hockey helmets or lock them in their rooms, Frew contends. 

"Nearly everyone who interacted with these women had concerns, it seems," but anyone who didn't bend to their will was pushed out, Frew contends.

She points to care providers who pushed for privacy being turned down and the couple's decision to homeschool the boys.

The women also falsely claimed they could not access services, Frew maintains.

She says the couple's word "is worth nothing."

During the break, I spoke with Kelly Lehto, who worked with Cooney at a doughnut shop in Burlington. 

Lehto is attending the trial. She described the shock of learning about the accusations.

"I first heard about it from a phone call with a detective," she says. "It was just horrible. I felt like throwing up."

Lehto recalled Cooney as "outgoing" and "strong-willed" during the time she knew her.

"She was friendly," Lehto said. "Hearing about everything that happened when I knew her is just shocking."

She says the details revealed during the trial have been difficult to process.

"As things progress, you think you’ve seen the worst, but more keeps coming out. It makes me sick to my stomach."

As the Crown began its closing arguments, the gallery’s behaviour shifted noticeably. 

People appear more engaged, listening intently and sitting up straighter, their attention focused squarely on Frew. 

Earlier, many had seemed distracted, glancing around the room and losing focus.

Frew addresses some points the defence made that she wants to correct, disagreeing with how Cooney's lawyer, Kim Edward, recounted some testimony.

She says she urges Conlan to review the testimony of L.L.'s physician and psychiatrist in whole, because MacGregor cherry-picked excerpts that don't show the full story.

For example, she says, the psychiatrist urged Hamber and Cooney to take L.L. To hospital but they ignored her.

Cooney and Hamber worked hard to appear like the boys' victims, but in conversations with each other and Cooney's father Ed, revealed they hated them and thought of them as less than human.

Their texts "paint the real picture" and the couple "lost all credibility" when they testified and described the 8,000 pages as anything but a true reflection of their feelings, Frew says. 

"These women controlled the narrative 100 per cent," she says, adding they exaggerated the children's behaviours and caused others.

We're back from the break, and Crown lawyer Kelli Frew starts arguments by saying Cooney and Hamber "are looking to blame anyone but themselves" for L.L.'s death.

"They say no one would help them deal with these allegedly unmanageable children," and to believe they were unmanageable relies on the credibility of the co-accused, she says.

"There is no credibility there."

The couple "abused, tortured and starved these boys," she says. They could have given them back at any time.”

She says the couple controlled everything, from when the brothers could use the washroom to how they could hold their arms when they slept.

The boys were not manipulators, she says. Hamber and Cooney were. And if anyone else had adopted them, L.L. Would still be alive.

Before entering the courtroom, I spoke with Heather Walsh, J.L.'s and L.L.'s former foster mother who testified last fall. She travelled from Ottawa to attend the trial and says she cared for the boys for nearly five years.

"It’s really hard to sum up who they were, they were adorable," she said. "They were helpless and were wronged."

Walsh fought back tears during our conversation. Since the proceedings began today, she has been taking notes, occasionally pausing to watch closely as MacGregor lays out his closing arguments.

"I wanted to be here for the kids. What happened is truly horrific, Canadians should know."

As MacGregor neared the end of his closing arguments, the mood in the courtroom shifted. 

People sat up straighter, following every word closely. 

The room was filled with the quiet shuffle of papers, the clicking of pens, and the tapping of keyboards. People looked to be deep in thought, carefully considering what was being said.

"Were the measures conventional? No. But neither was this scenario," MacGregor says of Hamber’s and Cooney's parenting. And, he says, CAS signed off on it.

After L.L. Died, MacGregor says, Hamber and Cooney co-operated with investigations, thinking they could get J.L. Back after CAS took him away.

He says there's no proof the couple deleted their security camera feed from the night L.L. Died, adding some cameras overwrite older footage and the camera connection could be spotty.

To the question of why the couple didn't return the boys to CAS, Hamber testified in hindsight she should have, MacGregor says. 

"These two young boys sadly were severely broken in their behaviours and their actions."

Hamber did not want the children to be returned to the foster system, believing they had been abused, MacGregor says.

“This is not murder.… Death was unpredictable and Ms. Hamber did everything she could in the last week of [L.L.’s] life,” he says in wrapping his arguments.

“She did everything in an excessive way to work with her doctors to get him help. That’s not intent. That means she’s not guilty of murder.”

The Crown is set to start its closing statements after a short break.

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