This Makes Me Sick To My Stomach

Nine-year ordeal ends as man sentenced in toddler's death
KIRK MAKIN
JUSTICE REPORTER

PETERBOROUGH, ONT. -- Tossing a cursory apology over his shoulder toward the people whose lives he ruined, a Peterborough man was led off to jail yesterday for killing 21-month-old Jenna Mellor.

The 24-year-old man's sentencing was the final chapter in a nine-year legal ordeal for Jenna's mother, Brenda Waudby, who was extensively investigated and then charged in September of 1997 with murdering her child in January of that year.

"I'd like to say sorry to the family for their loss," said the man, who admitted last December that while babysitting Jenna, he punched, poked and burned her to the point of death.

"I'd like to thank my family and friends for their support," he added, waving to them as police officers led him away moments later.
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The man, who was underage at the time of the little girl's death and therefore covered by the Young Offenders Act, pleaded guilty in December to manslaughter.

Before imposing the maximum term possible -- 33 months of combined secure custody and community supervision -- Mr. Justice John Payne of Ontario Superior Court heard that the defendant views himself as being minimally responsible for Jenna's death.

Quoting from a psychological assessment, Crown counsel Brian Gilkinson told the court the offender has a marked ability to rationalize his behaviour, and thinks police who did a poor job of investigating the crime bear much of the blame for what happened.

Mr. Gilkinson said it is difficult to comprehend that someone can brutalize a child, allow her mother to take the rap and then blame others for his actions. "He doesn't consider what he did as a horrible crime," Mr. Gilkinson said.

The offender's undoing came last year, when he revealed to an undercover police officer that he punched and poked Jenna out of anger at having to babysit her. The Crown recently withdrew sexual-assault charges against him because of insufficient evidence.

A pathologist had determined that Jenna likely died at a time when she was with her mother. Other medical experts later rejected the finding.

As part of yesterday's proceeding, Ms. Waudby gave the packed courtroom a taste of what it had been like to be a target of police aggression, scientific ineptitude and the seething hatred of her entire community.

Weeping occasionally, she said that she was ostracized, bereft of friends, and unable to prevent child-welfare authorities from seizing her other two children. She said she considered suicide many times.

"Because of you, my baby girl's life was cut short," she told the offender directly. "Because of you, I will never hold her again. . . . You are responsible for me being subjected to a negligent police investigation and negligent pathologist.

"There is no time that will completely heal my wounds, because some can never heal completely. You inflicted lasting scars on many people. The anger will never go away." Ms. Waudby also read from a statement written by Jenna's sister: "Because you let your actions and emotions take over you, Jenna is six feet under us," it said. "For the last nine years from hell, I have you to thank."

Two lawyers representing Ms. Waudby -- James Hauraney and Julie Kirkpatrick -- said yesterday that, besides an ongoing lawsuit against Peterborough-Lakefield Police Services, pathologist Charles Smith and one of the investigating officers in the case, they recently filed a second action against Ontario's Office of the Chief Coroner.

The cases will proceed quickly as soon as two remaining pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place, they said. The first is an Ontario Court of Appeal decision that will determine whether Dr. Smith is immune to civil action. The second is an internal inquiry report by the chief coroner's office into Dr. Smith's conclusions in dozens of other baby and child deaths.