Goudge Inquiry: Waudby Case; The Babysitter's Confession;

A question that has been nagging me about the Waudby case is how were the Peterborough Lakefield police able to make a provable case against J.D. (the babysitter) after focusing so intensively on Brenda Waudby.

An answer to this perplexing question is found in the "Oversight Report" on the Brenda Waudby case released Tuesday.

First, the facts.

We are told that, "On March 1, 2007, J.D. admitted the following facts, which Crown counsel relied upon in support of his guilty plea to a charge of manslaughter:

The accused [J.D.] became emotional, started to put his hands over his face
and started to sniffle.

He would then go - did go on to state that he in fact assaulted [Jenna].

He started by indicating he must have hit her which led to him admitting he poked her and that he was upset that he had to baby-sit that evening, which then led him to admitting that he punched her approximately six times during the course of the evening.

He would deny that he ever told anyone about this, indicating he was ashamed about what he had done, that it was the biggest mistake he ever made.

He also indicated that he poked at Jenna with his finger more than he punched her and that the punches were not complete punches, but they were good solid jabs to the stomach area and he believed they wouldn’t have been enough force to break ribs."

J.D. also admitted on his plea that he had provided an inculpatory statement to police upon his arrest.

The Crown read in that statement to police on his guilty plea.

His statement is very graphic and disturbing:

"And - ah - so, I was babysitting," he began.

"The mom came up and said, "You're not going anyware.

You can babysit the kids for an hour.

I said, "whatever", went down, my mom went out. Fucking jabbed her a few times and hit her a couple of times then.

And then her sister came out so I stopped doing her, right, so they wouldn't know.

I took them both outside to play and we went back into these units that we played in.

She was on top of the slide I was running down.

The sister let go.

She flipped, hit her head off the slide.

That's when I grabbed her and said, "Fuck this, we're going inside.

So then I went back inside, went upstairs to our apartment, blew dry her hair.

She hit forward.

I was like, "Oh my God, not again. Fucking look at this."

She just looked like a mess, right?

And I was like, "Fuck." poke. poke. I hit her a couple of times again. Then I went downstairs to their apartment put them both to bed.

My friends came over at about 11(eleven);

That's what time it is now.

Then I bring her out because she was coughing and shit.

And then I - my friends were like, "oh, she doesn't look well."

So I took her back in, poked her down.

She wouldn't stay down so I hit her so she would stay down.

Then about an hour after that, they went home.

She started coughing, spit up some stuff, so I took her into the bathroom.

She fell back and hit her head on one of the heat register things - this little knob that sticks out of the heaters;"

That is J.D's confession.

It is important, however, to note that when initially questioned by the police J.D. denied any involvement in the crime.

(As a curious footnote, the report notes that Waudby failed a polygraph test, "while J.D. was, according to the police, not intellectually capable to follow the direction required to complete the test.")

We are also informed that about a month after Jenna's death, she told Detective Constable Dan Lemay, "that she did not do anything, but believed the police would arrest her because they cannot prove that J.D. did anything and there would be pressure on the police to charge her."

Back to the facts:

On June 15, 1999, prosecutor Brian Gilkinson withdrew the second-degree murder charge against Waudby noting that the medical evidence had shifted dramatically.

Numerous experts selected by both the defence and the Crown had unanimously concluded that the injuries had been inflicted on Jenna shortly before her death at a time when Waudby could not possibly have been with her.

Dr. Smith had got it terribly wrong.

An interesting note tell us that Police investigators still felt very strongly that Brenda was responsible for Jenna's death, "but due to differences in medical opinions and no witness to the actual incident, there was not enough evidence to pursue charges against her."

This note, which give us insight into the police perspective at the time, goes onto say that, "Investigators were further satisfied that they had done all that they could to try and prove that [J.D.] was responsible for Jenna's death.

(J.D.) had cooperated through out the investigation and remained consistent in his story and the fact that he did not do anything to cause Jenna's death.

It was also believed, that due to his young age and the constant pressures placed on him by the police, that [J.D.] would have eventually admitted to an incident if he had caused Jenna's fatal injuries.

Further, it did not appear that there were any other suspects to pursue.

From here the story told by the Commission staff begins to resemble a detective novel, as it details the efforts of investigator to build a case against J.D. against overwhelming odds.

By March, 2004, Charmley realized that he would have to take a more imaginative approach because he felt he had exhausted all investigative avenues to uncover further evidence.

A confession would, of course, be helpful, but, as the report indicates, "With the passage of time, both Brenda and J.D. appear to be more confident and unwavering in their expressed innocence,

"Detective Constable Charmley doubts that either would submit to a confession to anyone at this stage of the investigation."

Motivated by new medical opinions that Jenna must have died while in J.D.'s care, the police decided to use an undercover officer, "to befriend J.D. to see if they could elicit incriminating statements or a confession," and to seek a wire-tap authorization.

We are told that in his final meeting with the undercover officer,in November, 2005,
"J.D. confessed to punching and poking Jenna on the night of her death."

I would love to be able to flesh in this successful undercover operation.

Was the officer a man posing as a contemporary who could recognize and help soothe a troubled mind?

Or was the officer posing as a young woman who had the necessary skills to draw out the most deeply buried secrets from a restless young man?

Maybe it was a "Mr Big" type of operation - one in which a suspect who cannot be hooked any other way is promised a senior position in a criminal organization if he admits all of his previous criminal acts - no matter how serious they may be?

(In their efforts to ensnare Waudby, the Peterborough police had brought in a Toronto undercover woman cop who joined her Narcotics Anonymous group in order to befriend her and gain her confidence;)

Whatever technique was used, I only wished the Peterborough police had listened to Brenda Waudby at the outset more carefully - she knew what must have happened to her daughter - and that they had used their investigative skills to go after J.D. aggressively at the time of Jenna's death.

Maybe Waudby and her family would have been spared their hellish ordeal.

Epilogue: On March 1, 2007, J.D. was sentenced as a youth to twenty-two months in prison followed by 11 months of community supervision.