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Phoenix Sinclair's stepfather had violent reputation: probation officer

By: Carol Sanders

Posted: 12/19/2012 1:27 PM | Comments: 0 | Last Modified: 12/19/2012 2:11 PM | Updates

Phoenix Sinclair, who was in CFS care, was slain by her mother and mother's boyfriend in 2005. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store

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Phoenix Sinclair's stepfather and murderer was such a volatile and angry man, his probation officer didn't want to be alone in a room with him.

"My concern was he might be violent in my office," Miriam Browne testified this morning at the inquiry into the death of the little girl in care.

The former probation officer with the domestic violence unit is now the registrar-executive director of the Manitoba Institute of Registered Social Workers. Browne testified about legislation to regulate the social work profession in Manitoba and her role as Karl McKay's probation officer in 1999.

In 2011, the province ordered an inquiry to examine how Phoenix fell through Manitoba's child welfare safety net. Phoenix's mother Samantha Kematch and her boyfriend, McKay, killed Phoenix in 2005 but her death wasn't discovered until 2006.They were convicted of first degree murder in 2008. Long before meeting Kematch, McKay was a violent man known to Child and Family Services, said his former probation officer who recalled meeting him more than a decade ago.

"I certainly felt that day that he was a very angry person and that my safety was at risk, and that it would not be safe for one individual to meet with him in the future," said Browne.

She wrote a warning letter to Child and Family Services about McKay who was on probation for beating his former spouses.

It said he was at a "high risk to re-offend in a violent fashion" and that children have been present when he was violent.

"We have serious concern for the safety of (the woman) and her children," the letter said.

The inquiry has heard that when Phoenix's mother resumed caring for the four-year-old in 2004, Kematch told a CFS social worker that her boyfriend was a trucker who stayed with her when he was in Winnipeg.

That man was McKay but the CFS intake worker didn't ask for his name or check to see if he had any prior involvement with the agency.

Browne testified that she wrote the letter to CFS about McKay because he was such a threat and she wanted to make sure CFS knew that.

"Its purpose was to formally document our concerns to the child welfare agency responsible for dealing with his significant other and their children."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

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Updated on Wednesday, December 19, 2012 at 2:11 PM CST: Fixes typo

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