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Quebec judge Bertrand St-Arnaud has declared the woman charged with abandoning her toddler in June not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.
He rendered his decision in a courtroom in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., Monday morning. The woman, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban protecting her daughter, faced charges of child abandonment and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
The three-year-old girl was the subject of an intensive search when she was reported missing in June. She was found alive three days later on the side of a highway in Ontario, about 150 kilometres from where she had last been seen.
St-Arnaud said it was clear the mother had mental health issues that prevented her from distinguishing right from wrong when she abandoned her child. According to the psychiatrist report presented in court, she had schizoaffective disorder, which can lead to states of depression, mania and psychotic episodes.
Speaking outside the courtroom Monday afternoon, Crown prosecutor Lili Prévost-Gravel said the woman was experiencing a manic episode with psychotic symptoms such as auditory hallucinations when she abandoned her daughter.
In her report, the psychiatrist said the mother’s psychological state improved after she received medication but she remains fragile.
St-Arnaud said the facts that led to the charges against the woman were proven beyond reasonable doubt.
According to the facts of the case read out in court on Monday, the woman’s mental health had deteriorated over a period of several months and she believed her daughter was possessed.
On the morning of June 15, she sent co-workers several text messages and emails that the Crown said exhibited her fragile mental state, without specifying the contents. She also posted a troubling video to TikTok, holding the girl and saying, “You try that again and this is going to get ugly.”
She quickly left her west-end Montreal home without her phone because she believed she was being followed.
The Montreal mother who ignited an intensive three-day search in eastern Ontario after leaving her three-year-old daughter in a field was facing charges of child abandonment and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
A few hours later, the woman reported her daughter missing after she walked into a store in Coteau-du-Lac, Que., about 50 kilometres west of Montreal. Store employees recalled her acting erratically and saying she’d lost her child.
The Crown said the woman was confused when speaking to police officers and offered disjointed remarks.
A frantic search then ensued. On June 18, a thermal drone from Ontario Provincial Police spotted the child in a ditch on the side of Highway 417 near Casselman, Ont.
“It was a hostile environment for a child,” Prévost-Gravel told the judge.
Toddler suffers from nightmares, fears of abandonment
The young girl, who is now in her father’s custody, suffers from nightmares. The dad has been forced to stay home from work so he can be with her all the time.
“Right now, he can’t leave her alone, so he can’t work,” Prévost-Gravel said. “He must always be in her presence, and there’s the fear of being abandoned, of course.” She will also require ongoing psychiatric care, Prévost-Gravel said.
When she was found, the little girl was severely dehydrated, soiled and had multiple insect bites and lesions from poison ivy.
The girl had difficulty relaxing her fingers because she had kept her fists clenched for so long. As well, her diaper had not been changed in days and as a result she was swollen and infected. She had to be hospitalized for four days.
A couple days after the toddler was found, the mother’s lawyer, Olivier Béliveau, said his client had been living in distress and needed help. She’s being detained at a psychiatric hospital in Montreal, the Institut national de psychiatrie légale Philippe-Pinel.
The not criminally responsible verdict means the accused was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of her actions, making her incapable of understanding the nature of them or that they were wrong.
The verdict can elicit mixed reactions, questions and confusion. That’s particularly true in Quebec, which has more not criminally responsible verdicts than any other province.
St-Arnaud will now have to determine if the mother should remain at the psychiatric hospital or be released — with or without conditions.
If she remains at the hospital, the judge could order occasional unaccompanied outings to help her reintegration into society. This pathway is recommended by psychiatrist Dr. Marie-Michèle Boulanger, who evaluated the woman over 60 days.
Speaking Monday afternoon, Prévost-Gravel said the Crown was satisfied with the psychiatrist’s recommendation and the reasoning behind it.
