A deeply disturbing child abuse case out of Ontario is exposing serious failures in Canada’s foster care system, as two lesbian women await a judge’s verdict for the alleged torture and starvation death of a 12-year-old boy in their care.
Becky Hamber, 46, and Brandy Cooney, 44, stood trial after the boy — identified in court only as “LL” — was found unresponsive in their basement in December 2022, covered in vomit and severely malnourished. He was pronounced dead shortly after, with the cause of death determined to be hypothermia and cardiac arrest brought on by extreme malnourishment. He weighed only 48 pounds.
Court documents revealed a series of chilling text messages exchanged between the pair, including one that read “shiver shiver dumb f–k” sent in the days before LL was discovered. Other messages indicated the pair openly admitted to “hating” the boy. In one particularly damning exchange, Cooney wrote that she feared he “is suddenly going to die and im going to jail.”
LL and his younger brother had been in the pair’s custody since 2017. The women had been close to formally adopting both boys despite clear warning signs. A social worker testified that children were living in squalor, sleeping in their own vomit, and being forced to wear wetsuits and hockey helmets while blankets were withheld. The pair pleaded not guilty to murder, unlawful confinement, failure to provide the necessaries of life, and assault with a weapon.
The case raises serious and urgent questions about Canada’s child protective services. How does a child drop to 48 pounds in a foster home under active supervision without intervention? Who signed off on nearly allowing these women to adopt? The system that was supposed to protect LL failed him at every turn. This horrifying abuse exposes a system that subverts the need foster children have for love and care, replacing that with LGBT ideology.