 |
 Grandparents Jean and Allen Eccleston leave court. They wept as they heard the details of how their baby grandaughter was tied in plastic bags and hidden in a trunk. (Tracy McLaughlin) |
BARRIE -- Tears of pain and anger flowed in a courtroom yesterday as the family of a baby girl found dead in a car trunk told a judge they never want to see the mother again.
Jody Ann Lee, 37, of Barrie, pleaded guilty to infanticide and failing to provide the necessities of life after police found her newborn baby girl stuffed into plastic bags in the trunk of her car Nov. 8, 2005.
Lee is allowed to spend three days a week with the surviving twin at her home where she lives with her parents as she awaits sentencing, court has heard.
Speaking from the witness stand during yesterday's sentencing hearing, the dead baby's grandfather, Allen Eccleston, shook as he told the judge of the pain and shock he and his wife went through after learning of the horrible death.
MUCH PAIN
"We never want to see you again," Eccleston said as he looked over to where the mother sat in the prisoner's box. She did not look back.
|
As he spoke of the pain and financial burden the family has gone through, Lee's family smiled and a few times snickered quietly among themselves as they sat in the court.
Court heard how Lee kept her pregnancy a secret and when she gave birth to "baby girl Lee" she ripped off the umbilical cord and stuffed the baby into two plastic bags and tied them in a knot.
But unbeknownst to her, a second baby was still inside her womb.
SECOND BABY
It was days later when she went to hospital with abdominal pains and gave birth to a healthy twin baby boy. Nurses noticed how she seemed to be unattached to the baby, calling him "it," but she was sent home with her baby while doctors sent off the placenta for analysis and two umbilical cords were discovered.
Seven days later police found the baby in the trunk of Lee's car. She was a full term, healthy baby, naked and curled up in a fetal position.
Doctors say she had taken her first few breaths of life.
"Had she not had a second baby, she would have got away with it," said Crown attorney Dave Russell, who is asking for jail time. He described Lee as a manipulative and devious woman who killed her baby simply because she didn't want her parents to know she was having premarital sex.
Defence lawyer Gary Pickard is asking for a suspended sentence or house arrest.
Justice Robert MacKinnon will rule on Tuesday.