
Lethbridge parents sentenced for abusing infant have prior convictions with other child
CBC
WARNING: This article contains details of abuse.
Two Lethbridge parents who pleaded guilty to child abuse-related offences after breaking the arm of their three-week old girl had previous convictions for failing to provide for another child five years earlier, CBC News has learned.
The mother and father pleaded guilty last month to charges of aggravated assault, failing to provide the necessaries of life and public mischief.
The 39-year-old father was handed a three-year prison sentence while the 33-year-old mother received 18 months in custody.
Neither can be named in order to protect their daughter.
Newly accessible documents — the agreed statements of facts (ASF) from the parents' pleas — offer details of the crimes.
The couple's daughter was born on Nov. 3, 2023.
Three weeks later, the mother noticed her baby wasn't using her left arm in a normal manner.
Doctors would later determine that the baby has a congenital condition that causes her to tuck her thumb, but at the time, the couple believed the infant's elbow was dislocated.
The father thought he'd caused the injury by pulling on the girl's arm while changing her at some point over the previous 24 hours.
Five years earlier, both parents had been convicted of failing to provide the necessaries of life to the mother's child. The agreed statement of facts does not offer further details of that crime.
Because of previous convictions, "they were afraid to go to the hospital to have [the baby's] injuries treated," reads the ASF.
So, the couple decided to try to fix the baby's suspected injury themselves.
The father researched how to reset a dislocated elbow and found several articles and videos on the subject.