Mom who abducted her kids lacks insight into behaviour: judge

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This article was published 24/05/2018 (2870 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg mother who abducted her own children will spend more time behind bars after a provincial court judge decided that, although she was motivated by love for her kids, she still doesn’t understand the harm she caused.

The 45-year-old woman caused a police pursuit in rush-hour traffic two years ago after her two children went missing from their Child and Family Services placement for four days and police put out a Canada-wide warrant for their mother’s arrest.

She was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in jail and has already served most of that sentence while she was in custody awaiting trial. She has 30 days behind bars left to serve. The Free Press is not naming her because of a court-ordered publication ban that protects the identities of her children.

Crown prosecutors sought a sentence of two years less a day behind bars, while defence asked for no further jail time. Provincial court Judge Tracey Lord decided jail time was warranted, followed by three years of supervised probation.

While she’s on probation, the woman won’t be allowed to have contact with her kids or her ex-husband.

“(Her) acts, despite being motivated by love, have destroyed her relationship with her children and deprived them of a bond that they deserve to have. She continues to blame others for the situation and lacks insight into her own responsibility for where she finds herself and the damage she has done,” Lord said in her decision Thursday.

The mother pleaded guilty to the abduction in July 2017, admitting she took her kids during a long custody battle with their father, who was granted full custody. She picked up the kids from their placement on June 20, 2016 and kept them in her care even though she had been ordered not to have unauthorized contact with them and was only supposed to see them during CFS-supervised visits.

She withdrew all the cash from her bank account and harboured the kids in a house that had been rented under a fake name — evidence Lord said contradicted the mother’s assertion that the abduction was “just a mistake” and wasn’t planned.

The four-day police search ended when officers saw the mother driving an SUV that was full of boxes and belongings, with no room for the children to properly sit. As police tried to box her in, her SUV collided with a police cruiser, which was left with a flat tire. She was arrested nearby after she and the kids ran into a park and they tried to hide in bushes.

When her then-11-year-old daughter was subsequently questioned, the child told investigators home is where her mother is. But victim-impact information provided to court by CFS tells a different story.

“Despite how she may have felt in the past, (the daughter) is now scared that her mother will return and take her again. She suffers from nightmares and has trouble sleeping and she doesn’t go outside to play at recess. Since her mother’s return to custody, her concerns have lessened,” Lord said.

While she was on bail awaiting sentencing, the mother was arrested on new charges for which she’s still before the court. She was charged in March with one count of impersonating a peace officer and five counts of failing to comply with a court order that was meant to keep her from coming within 200 metres of her two children.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay