CAS Helped Kill Katelynn Sampson

January 10, 2009 permalink

It turns out CAS was involved in the death of Katelynn Sampson, in spite of their earlier denials. A cop enticed mother Bernice Sampson into an illegal drug deal with the prospect of earning $40, then children's aid compelled her to give up custody of her daughter. [The more politically correct Toronto Star says she gave up custody to avoid having CAS seize her child after an anticipated conviction]. She selected her friend Donna Irving without any knowledge of Donna's past history of harming children. Had the police and children's aid left this mother alone, Katelynn would still be alive.

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Mom lost girl over $40

Drug charge forced Bernice Sampson to give up Katelynn -- then she was murdered

By SAM PAZZANO, COURTS BUREAU, Last Updated: 9th January 2009, 3:49am

Bernice Sampson had to hand over her daughter to two guardians -- now accused of killing the seven-year-old -- because she faced a minor drug charge that netted her $40, court heard yesterday.

Sampson, 47, the grieving mom of murder victim Katelynn Sampson, pleaded guilty yesterday to trafficking crack cocaine and was given a four-month stay-at-home sentence in Superior Court.

Defence lawyer Corbin Cawkell told Justice Ian Nordheimer that Sampson suffered every mother's worst nightmare after the 2007 charges forced her to give up custody of her child.

'BRUTALLY BEATEN'

"She suffered enormously and unexpectedly as a direct result of these charges," Cawkell said.

"She gave up custody to these guardians ... and (Katelynn) was brutally beaten to death. She is picking up the pieces and moving forward."

The judge said he accepted the conditional sentence due to "the tragic circumstances of the accused's life and her daughter."

Sampson said she's still so traumatized that she sometimes looks for "Katelynn as if I don't know she's not there.

"You cannot imagine what I have gone through," said the mother of five and grandmother of four.

"I'm seeing a psychiatrist to help me get through this nightmare."

Last September, Donna Irving, 29, and her common-law husband Warren Johnson, 46, had their charges upgraded to first-degree murder in the death of Katelynn Angel Sampson, who was found dead Aug. 3 in a West Lodge Ave. apartment in the Queen St. W.-Lansdowne Ave. area.

Irving told a 911 operator the child had choked while eating and stopped breathing, police said.

However, Toronto Police launched an investigation into Katelynn's death because of what police called major injuries to her body.

They said later the child had been "assaulted throughout her entire body," the victim of months of brutality.

Sampson has fought a long battle against drug addiction but had remained out of criminal courts for a decade before 2007.

But when she was charged in a drug deal as a go-between for a dealer and a buyer who turned out to be an undercover cop, the Children's Aid Society became involved.

Sampson agreed to hand over custody of her children to her friend Irving, whom she has known for 15 years, and Irving's common-law spouse.

Source: Toronto Sun