Mentally disabled young woman tortured by Winnipeg family
Abuse began when she moved into home of family friend, lasted four months
Last Updated: Monday, July 6, 2009 | 5:27 PM CT
CBC News
Four members of a Winnipeg family will be sentenced next Monday for abusing a young disabled woman who lived in their home in early 2006.
The 23-year-old female victim, who has the mental capacity of a 12-year-old because of a birth defect, was subjected to beatings, pushed down a flight of stairs and starved to the point of emaciation, the court heard Monday.
The woman, who suffers from fetal dilantin syndrome, a disorder that impaired her cognition at birth, was also repeatedly burned with lighters, cigarettes and even a kitchen tool heated red hot on a stove, the court heard.
Dale Hendrickson, 24, and his sister, April Armstrong, 33, have pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in connection with the abuse. Their mother, Thelma Hendrickson, 63, and Dale Hendrickson’s then-fiancée, Amanda O’Malley, 21, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of assault causing bodily harm and are seeking conditional sentences that will keep them out of jail.
Crown attorney Shelly McFadyen would not consent to the conditional sentences but did submit a joint Crown-defence plea deal for Dale Hendrickson and Armstrong. It calls for six years of jail time for Hendrickson and between four to five years for Armstrong.
Judge Kelly Moar will hand down a decision on sentencing July 13.
Abusers were friends of victim's family
The case dates back to October 2005, when the then 19-year-old victim went to live with Thelma Hendrickson, a family friend. Prior to that, she had been living at the home of a relative but moved out after concerns arose that she was receiving unwanted physical contact.
Hendrickson was someone the victim considered to be a mother figure, the court heard.
In February 2006, Hendrickson's son and daughter moved back from Calgary into their mother's home, accompanied by O'Malley.
Court transcripts show that at first, everyone in the home was getting along well. The abuse, which lasted four months, began after the Hendricksons and O'Malley accused the woman of sexually interfering with a child, said McFadyen, the Crown attorney.
Instead of reporting the unsubstantiated sexual interference allegation to police, the four relatives set about a campaign of abuse as retribution, McFadyen said.
'This was an extraordinarily traumatic set of events … a case of unbelievable cruelty. It's as though human decency was suspended.'— Crown Attorney Shelly McFadyen
The victim was burned with lit cigarettes, whipped with wet towels, repeatedly pushed down stairs, punched, burned with lighters and starved of food, McFadyen told the judge. In one incident, a barbecue fork was heated until red hot on a stove element, then pressed into the victim's skin by Dale Hendrickson.
McFadyen said Dale Hendrickson told police in a statement: "When he heard a sizzling sound, he would take it off."
"Everything else was being done to her, so he just decided to try this, too," McFadyen told the court.
Victim restrained while burned
Sometimes, the victim would be restrained while being burned with burning tissue paper applied to her skin, court documents stated.
The victim's family eventually grew worried about having not seen her for months and called police. When officers arrived at the home on June 22, 2006, they found the victim in a room in "dire condition," with black eyes and multiple bruises on her body, according to court documents.
"Her family members didn't even recognize her when they brought her out of the residence," McFadyen told the court.
The victim was taken to hospital, where she remained until Aug 21. She had lost 100 pounds and was "severely emaciated," McFadyen said.
The victim wasn't able to make a statement to police until late October 2006, and their investigation resulted in all four abusers being charged with aggravated assault.
A booklet of photographs of the victim's injuries was submitted by the Crown in court.
'Didn't know what was going to happen'
In her victim impact statement, the woman said she was "scared, frightened … I didn't know what was going to happen." She said she couldn't move around the house out of fear and wasn't allowed to contact friends or family while living there.
"You can't even imagine what she experienced each time when she saw the lighter come out, each time she saw a cigarette," McFadyen said, describing what happened as "abusive, torturous behaviour," made worse by the fact not one of the four accused called police or tried at any time to stop it.
"This was an extraordinarily traumatic set of events … a case of unbelievable cruelty. It's as though human decency was suspended," McFadyen told Moar.
None of the accused, who all pleaded guilty during an earlier preliminary inquiry, has a prior criminal record.
Corrections and Clarifications
- Those accused of abusing a disabled Winnipeg woman are Thelma and Dale Hendrickson, not Thelma and Dale Hendricks, as originally reported. July 7, 2009 | 9:21 p.m. ET
