Miscelleneous Articles

Woman who sexually assaulted her son gets conditional sentence and $3,500 fine

November 20th 2009

QUEBEC, Canada — A 55-year-old woman was given a sentence without any jail time, and was ordered to pay several thousand dollars, for sexually assaulting her teenage son.



Marie-Jeanne Bedard, who lives in the suburbs of Quebec City, was handed Friday a two-year sentence to be served outside prison. She must also give her son $3,500, and has been ordered to pay for the therapy he's needed over the years.

The assaults occurred between January 1993 and March 1994, when the boy was 13.

In handing down his sentence, the judge said he took into account the fact that Bedard was living through what he called a troubled period in her life.

But the Crown was disappointed. It had been seeking a jail term.

The victim noted one positive result from Friday's sentencing: people will now know what his mother did to him. The judge lifted a publication ban on Bedard's identity, which had been kept secret to protect the victim.

But the son held a news scrum outside the courtroom, and told reporters he wanted his mother's identity made public.

"I lived with that secret inside me for 14 years," he said.

"Today I'm tired of living with that secret."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jb28ZChRqKYBz8dfqLkM9Q7FT3JA

French Language News Reports On This Case:-

http://www2.canoe.com/infos/societe/archives/2009/11/20091120-130512.html

http://lcn.canoe.ca/lcn/infos/faitsdivers/archives/2009/11/20091120-111433.html

http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/Quebec/2009/11/20/003-bedard_peine.shtml

"Member of Texas polygamist sect sentenced 75 years."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100320/D9EI3IOG0.html

"Mar 19, 9:56 PM (ET)"

"SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) - The latest member of a polygamist group whose sprawling West Texas ranch was raided in 2008 has been sentenced to 75 years in prison for sexual assault of a child.

Thirty-five-year-old Merril Leroy Jessop was sentenced Friday. Jurors earlier this week also found he violated Texas laws prohibiting bigamy.

Prosecutors say Jessop tried to delete photos and other documents connecting him to an underage bride.

Jessop is the fourth member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to be tried since authorities raided and seized documents from the Yearning For Zion Ranch. The weeklong raid temporarily sent 439 children to foster care.

The Texas attorney general's office says eight more group members are awaiting trial."

Boy forced to wear sunglasses and hat in class

Drinks spiked with sugar to suggest diabetes

Medics operated under anaesthetic to discover illness

Mother pocketed £20,000 a year in benefits


A mother who pretended her son was the sickest boy in the country and sent him to school in a wheelchair - even though he was perfectly healthy - faces jail today.
In an astonishing six-year deception, Lisa Hayden-Johnson paraded her son around claiming he had a number of life-threatening conditions.
Craving attention and money, the 35-year-old claimed the boy suffered from cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, a metabolic disorder, diabetes, food disorders, the throat condition dysphagia and a sunlight intolerance

In order to make people believe her bizarre lies, she forced the boy to go to school in a wheelchair, and to wear sunglasses to protect his eyes and a bright yellow and green hat so he could be easily identified in case of emergency.

The boy spent his early life in and out of hospital being examined by a stream of medical specialists, as his mother convinced them that she had correctly diagnosed her son's illnesses.
Hayden-Johnson also persuaded her son's school to spend much-needed money on improving wheelchair access for the boy.
At home she would often wear a green nurse's uniform and had transformed the boy's bedroom into a miniature hospital-style ward, complete with oxygen cylinders and boxes of medical supplies.
She even allowed him to undergo invasive gastro-surgery under general anaesthetic so doctors could examine her claims that he could not keep his food down.
Police believe she may also have spiked his drinks with sugar, so tests would back her claims that he had developed diabetes.


Hayden-Johnson pocketed around £20,000 a year in benefits, as well as free holidays which were donated to the pair by generous well-wishers.

The boy was paraded around to a string of events and television appearances including GMTV and the Children of Courage awards, where she met the Duchess of Cornwall and Cherie Blair.
She also wrote to SImon Cowell telling him about her son's terrible ordeal and was sent tickets to see the X Factor being filmed.
So convincing was Hayden-Johnson's con that even her husband was fooled, as doctors and nurses were baffled by the boy's supposed conditions.
In one magazine article in 2004 she claimed that without his food pump her son would die, and that he had an allergy so rare that there were only six documented cases in the world.
She went on to describe the torment he suffered when he watched other members of his family eating normal meals. 'What choice did we have - make him sit with us at the dinner table, watching us eat, or get him to sit alone while we all ate together?' she said. 'Either of those seemed too cruel.'
As the net closed on her and her pack of lies threatened to be exposed the defendant sank to a new low, telling police she had been raped by a mystery motorcyclist on a country road near her home in South Devon.
To make her ordeal appear more convincing she rubbed oven cleaner into self-inflicted wounds.
It was not until police announced they were close to arresting a suspect in the rape case that Hayden-Johnson eventually came clean and admitted she had lied about the rape - and the rest of her lies were exposed.

Detective Constable Mark Uren, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: 'She dedicated most of her time to convincing and deliberately deceiving medical professionals that her son was the sickest child in Britain.
'She was craving attention for herself and also to get financial rewards.
'She bullied health professionals, she was so aggressive - and her only medical qualification was as a failed nurse.
'Even his school was nervous about the way she was and bowed down to her.'
During investigations police uncovered evidence that the boy was entirely healthy, in the form of a video shot while the pair were on a cruise.
The film showed the boy, who cannot be named, running around in his swimming trunks - a far cry from being confined to a wheelchair.
DC Uren said: 'He looked like Mark Spitz or Ian Thorpe running around in his Speedos. And there was not a feeding or breathing tube in sight.
'And one family photo showed him eating the biggest carvery you have ever seen with Yorkshire puddings. And he was seen tucking into a burger and bap at a local fair - things his mum said he could not eat.'

In one instance, DC Uren said, the mother sent him to school in a pair of her own sunglasses to protect his eyes from the light. However they were too big for his head so she used Sellotape to keep them in place.

DC Uren said: 'He looked like the singer Roy Orbison.'
He added: 'And in case of an emergency at school, she also insisted he wore a fluorescent green and yellow cap so he could be easily picked out - he looked like a fishing float with the cap on.'
'His bedroom at home was like a scene out of TV's Casualty. There was a specialist bed and boxes of unopened pump feed and medical gear.'
Hayden-Johnson admitted at Exeter Crown Court child cruelty between February 2001 and October 2007 and perverting the course of justice in May 2007 over the false rape claim.
Her children - the boy and his sister - now live with their father in another part of the country.

DC Uren said: 'Both are really happy. The boy is playing sports and thriving.
'His sister grew up without the shared attention playing second fiddle and not knowing if her little brother would die.
'There was great difficulty for us getting to the truth. There were 15 huge files with both the boy and his mum's medical records going back to his birth. She constantly denied being cruel to her son.

'At no stage has she ever apologised for what she has done to her her son and her family - there has never been an explanation.'


Lisa Hayden-Johnson, right, pictured here with the son (in red), daughter and the children's father at the Children of Courage awards. The family members' identities have been protected



The boy's bedroom had been transformed into a miniature hospital ward, with an oxygen cylinder beside his bed and drawers full of drugs



Police found drawers full of drugs at Hayden-Johnson's house, meant for her healthy son





The 35-year-old was sentenced to three years and three months in prison at Exeter Crown Court today, having previously admitted charges of child cruelty and perverting the course of justice.

Woman arrested after toddler body find

A 35 year old has been detained and is due to appear in court today.

01 April 2010 14:58 GMT

Police have arrested a 35-year-old woman in connection with the death of a young child in Paisley.

It has been confirmed that she is being detained over an alleged offence under the Child and Young Persons Scotland Act. The woman will appear at Paisley Sheriff Court today.

The body of a 23-month-old boy was discovered at a house in Bruce Road early on Tuesday evening.

The death is being treated as unexplained by police pending the results of a post mortem examination.

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/west-central/167331-woman-arrested-after-toddler-body-find

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8598507.stm

Body of baby found at house may have been there for more than three months

THE decomposing body of a 23-month-old baby boy has been found at a house.

And neighbours last night claimed the tot, named locally as Declan, may have lain dead at the scene for more than three months.

Police were waiting for a post mortem on the child. A spokesman said: "We are treating the death as unexplained at this time."

A local woman in Bruce Road, Paisley, where the remains were discovered on Tuesday evening, said: "It is truly shocking to think the baby has been in that house all this time.

"I have not seen the mother since November and that was in the centre of Paisley. The word is the baby may have been dead since before Christmas.

"It makes me physically sick."

It's understood the tot's mum, who is in her mid-30s, moved into the house two years ago.

Another neighbour said: "Detectives started asking questions about her on Tuesday night but would only say there had been an incident.

"It was only on Wednesday morning that word got out that wee Declan was dead. Everyone in the street is numb with shock.

"We cannot believe something like this has happened on our doorstep.

"It's an utter tragedy and our hearts go out to that wee boy."

Forensics officers were working at the house last night. The baby's body was carried to an ambulance on a stretcher.

Police said a post mortem would take place today.

A spokeswoman for the Strathclyde force added: "A 35 year-old woman has been arrested and detained in police custody in connection with an alleged offence under the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act."

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2010/04/01/body-of-baby-found-at-scots-house-may-have-been-there-for-more-than-three-months-86908-22153391/

Latest:-

Renfrewshire woman charged with neglect

01 April 2010, 18:08

Court appearance follows the discovery of a child's body in a Paisley flat.

A 35-year-old Paisley woman has been charged with neglecting her son up until he was almost two years old at her home in the city's Gallowhill area.

The development follows the discovery earlier this week of a 23-month-old child’s body at a house in the city's Bruce Road.

It is claimed that Kim Hainey acted in the manner described, wilfully abandoning the child, who was born on April 17, 2008, between September 1 that year and March 30, 2010, in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury to health, by leaving him unattended at her home on Bruce Road for prolonged periods of time.

The petition states that the exact dates cannot be libelled at the present time as they are unknown.

The charge has been raised under the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act of 1937.

Hainey, whose address has been given as c/o Dykebar Hospital, Paisley, made no plea or declaration during her brief appearance in chambers represented by defence agent Jonathan Manson, and the case against her was continued for further examination by Sheriff Tom Ward.

A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: "Declan’s death is a terrible tragedy. We are working closely with Strathclyde Police on their criminal investigation into the case.

"We are also actively working with our key child protection partners, the NHS, Strathclyde Police and other agencies, to review the circumstances surrounding Declan’s death.

"Declan was not on the Child Protection Register and was not subject to any supervision order."

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/west-central/167362-renfrewshire-woman-charged-with-neglect/