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More Abuse of CAS Wards

September 16, 2005 permalink

Here is more news about how the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto cares for its wards.

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Toronto Sun

September 16, 2005

'He always eats well'

Grandfather accused of starving boy to death portrayed Jeffrey as healthy to police, court hears

By SAM PAZZANO, COURTS BUREAU

David Watt, Norman Kidman and Elva Bottineau
Justice David Watt, left, presides in court yesterday as the accused Norman Kidman and Elva Bottineau watch Kidman's videotaped statement. (Pam Davies, Sun illustration)

Tiny Jeffrey Baldwin was locked up in his bedroom to prevent him from drinking toilet water in the middle of the night, court heard yesterday.

Jeffrey's grandfather Norman Kidman told detectives of the gruesome details of the 5-year-old boy's life in a videotaped statement that was played in court yesterday.

Kidman and his longtime common-law wife, Elva "Eve" Bottineau, are accused of starving Jeffrey to death, confining him in his urine-and-feces infested, frigid bedroom. Both 53-year-olds have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Jeffrey's Nov. 30, 2002 death.

The Catholic Children's Aid Society awarded custody to the couple in 1998.

Kidman portrayed Jeffrey to police as a healthy, but "borderline retarded" boy who always had a good appetite.

But Kidman admitted to police he had "no idea" how much Jeffrey weighed.

"He always eats well. A very good eater. Jeffrey is, always was, always was a good eater," Kidman said in the interview with police.

Jeffrey weighed 21 pounds when he died, or as much as the average 10-month-old baby, and court has heard his appearance shocked everyone who saw the stunted boy at hospital.

NOT TOILET-TRAINED

Kidman said Jeffrey wasn't sent to school because he wasn't yet toilet-trained and wouldn't have been accepted. Jeffrey's room was stripped of all furnishings and toys because he would smear them with feces, Kidman said.

Kidman said he and his wife stopped Jeffrey from banging his head off the floor.

"Was he a normal size?" Det. David Simpkins asked in the interview.

"No, Jeffrey was small. He was always small. He was always tiny," Kidman said.

Evidence presented earlier in the trial showed that Jeffrey, as an infant, was in the 97th percentile for height, or extremely tall for his age.

Jeffrey was "fine" and healthy the last time Kidman saw him naked two or three weeks before his death, court heard in the interview.

Medical evidence presented earlier in the trial concluded Jeffrey would have appeared as gaunt and emaciated in the last few months of his life as he had at death.

MOM SHOOK BOY

Kidman said his daughter Yvonne lost custody of Jeffrey and his sister after a welfare office worker spotted the mom shaking one of the kids. Yvonne lost an earlier baby for leaving her in the house while she was fighting in the street, court heard.

Jeffrey was never physically abused, only "smacked" for misbehaving sometimes, Kidman told police.

Jeffrey had blunt force trauma injuries on his head, court has heard.

Source: Toronto Sun

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