The court will have to decide between a prison sentence or a community sentence for a mother who filmed herself threatening her own daughters aged 3 and 9 at the point of a knife. “I’m going to kill the two female dogs,” she shouts in a shocking video filed as evidence on Monday where we see the two little girls, frightened, taking refuge behind blankets in a bed.
The woman, who cannot be identified to protect the identity of the young victims, pleaded guilty in January 2024 to charges of armed assault, death threats and false imprisonment against her two daughters.
According to the explanations she provided to Judge Stéphane Poulin on Monday as part of the sentencing submissions, she was exasperated to hear the children crying and arguing. She therefore filmed herself with her phone in order to “call for help”, sending extremely shocking videos to a friend.
In one of the extracts presented in the room, we can see the little girls on a bed, finding refuge under the covers to protect themselves from their mother. We see in the image the woman brandishing a kitchen knife towards the children, who are screaming in distress.
“I talk to her and she doesn’t respond to anything, the female dog. I’m going to kill them both! Look at the knife, I’m going to kill the two female dogs,” screams the woman aged in her late thirties in the video, filed under seal in court, which prevents its distribution.
Prison farm claims the crown
In total, four videos and an audio extract of a call recorded without the accused’s knowledge were presented to the court.
The woman speaks of her little girls using filthy terms, calling them “sluts”, “cows”, “fat”. She yells at the children to relieve themselves in their room, threatening to “hurt” them.
The public prosecutor is demanding a prison sentence of nine to twelve months for the mother, who lost custody of the girls, accompanied by two years of supervised probation.
Me Anne-Frédérique Coulombe in no way buys the explanations of the mother, who testified on Monday to having experienced distress and psychosis because she was a single parent and because the father of the little girls was also problematic, adding that the friend to whom she had sent the videos had forwarded them to the DPJ “to take revenge” for another situation.
“There is trivialization and lack of responsibility. We are always in others, she has explanations for everything,” lamented Me Coulombe, emphasizing the “troubling” images. “Collectiveness is not appropriate in the circumstances.”
Serious after-effects
In defense, Me Benoit Labrecque submitted to the judge the imposition of a home sentence accompanied by supervised probation to allow his client to “keep her skills”, namely her work as financial director and advisor in a car dealership. used cars, and the therapeutic journey she has taken in recent months.
“What happened is disgusting, heinous and unacceptable. But my client did everything in place to show how she found it unacceptable by taking control of herself,” insisted Me Labrecque.
“I just want to catch up with my children, I want to evolve with them,” confided the woman, specifying that she wanted to regain custody of them.
As for the little girls, now in foster care, they obviously have the after-effects of the revolting behavior of the one who should have protected them.
“They must both have follow-ups with a psychologist and a social worker. Some of the behaviors observed are reproduced at home,” explained the Crown prosecutor, recounting comments from the father, who allegedly witnessed a scene where one of the young girls threatened her sister with a knife.
Judge Stéphane Poulin took the case under advisement and will deliver his decision next April.
