A harrowing murder trial in Ontario has heard how a 12-year-old boy spent his final moments screaming, vomiting, and desperately banging on a locked basement door, while the two women poised to adopt him allegedly watched his suffering via a camera and did nothing to help.
A Story of Hope Turns to Alleged Torture
What began as a promise of a new life for two orphaned brothers descended into a cycle of horrific torture and neglect, prosecutors told the court. The boy, identified only as LL, was in the care of Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney as they finalised his adoption when he died on December 21, 2022.
The couple has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder in connection with LL's death. They have also denied charges of forcible confinement, assault with a weapon, and failing to provide the necessities of life to LL's younger brother, JL, who has testified in the trial.
When paramedics discovered LL in the basement of the couple's home in the Toronto area, he was unresponsive, emaciated, and inexplicably soaking wet. A wetsuit was found nearby. Despite being rushed to hospital, the boy was pronounced dead. He was so severely malnourished that witnesses said he had the appearance of a six-year-old.
The Final Hours of a Desperate Boy
The court was presented with a devastating account of LL's last hours. It is alleged he was trapped in the basement for hours, where he cried, vomited, and screamed in pain. He was heard punching and kicking the door in a desperate attempt to escape, at one point pleading, "This is not going to get any better."
Social worker Faisel Modhi testified that the couple showed him a video from a camera in the boy's room, saved on one of their phones. The footage allegedly showed the women instructing the distressed boy to do yoga poses or walk around his basement room. A voice, believed to be Hamber's, was heard telling LL to 'lay down because he was being disrespectful'.
The clips reportedly stopped around 5pm, with the couple claiming their internet was "spotty." Later, Cooney said she took a blanket off the boy and told him to 'calm down,' which further distressed him. The next time she checked, LL was unresponsive with 'vomit everywhere'.
A Pattern of Alleged Abuse Revealed
LL's younger brother, JL, provided chilling testimony about the years of alleged abuse he and his brother endured after moving into the couple's Burlington home in 2017. He told the court the women subjected them to a regime of torture, including:
- Forcing them to wear wetsuits and hockey helmets for hours on end.
- Locking them in their rooms at night.
- Constantly monitoring their behaviour with cameras.
- Banning them from speaking for days at a time as punishment.
Prosecutors showed the court a video of LL wearing a black hockey helmet and a wetsuit as he wandered up and down the basement stairs. Another clip allegedly captured the boy crying, "I only did one thing wrong I can't do them all night."
The defence lawyers for Hamber and Cooney argued that the boys had special needs, threw violent tantrums, destroyed property, and that the couple received little support. They maintain the women were doing their best in a difficult situation.
The cause of LL's death remains unclear; a pathologist could not definitively determine if he died from hypothermia or severe malnourishment. The trial continues and is expected to last until December.
