MIDLAND–The mother of a mentally challenged woman who was tortured and left to die in a basement has told a judge she relives the nightmare of her daughter's death every day.
"The pain and anger is so overwhelming that I fear it's going to eat me up," Deborah Laramey told Justice Roland Harris yesterday before he sentenced Susanna Balogh, 31, of Midland to eight years in prison for criminal negligence causing the death of Katlin Cousineau.
The Ontario Court of Justice was told Balogh had befriended Cousineau, who was 23 but had a mental age of 12 or 13 years.
Balogh invited Cousineau, who was incapable of living alone, to live with her and her three children, four dogs, 20 cats and four rabbits.
Balogh managed Cousineau's finances, cashing her disability cheque and giving her an allowance.
Two men moved into the home and animosity toward Cousineau started to grow and reached a point were she was treated "worse than the animals," and she was forced to sleep in an unfinished basement, Harris said during sentencing.
On Nov. 12, 2005, the two men took Cousineau to the basement and began burning her naked body with a blowtorch in a prolonged attack that Harris described as "sadistic torture."
Balogh looked on as the two men burned Cousineau and threw rubbing alcohol onto her, but didn't lift a finger to intervene although Cousineau begged for help, Harris said.
The attack took place while Balogh's sons, then aged 13, 12 and 11, were upstairs.
After the attack, Cousineau was left to die in the cold basement without any aid or medical treatment with what Harris described as a "callousness and inhumanity" that left him shaken.
The next day, the two men and Balogh discussed various ways of disposing of the body, the court heard, and settled on burning the house down with Cousineau's body inside.
Her charred remains were pulled from the rubble of the burned home on County Road 93 in Midland on Nov. 14, 2005.
On Wednesday, Balogh pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death, conspiracy to commit arson and obstruction of justice.
____________________________________Is this a hate crime against people with disabilities? This version of the article explicitly states that there was growing animosity between the parties.
I think the failure of the legal system to recognize this as anything but negligence, and the like, only legitimizes in society violence and animosity towards people with disabilities. By calling violence against women and people of colour hate crimes, we are no longer allowing actions to be taken against a person to be mere acts of violence, but motivated by hatred. How this is any different for a case on disability, I dont know.
You decide.
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