"MS. WAUDBY SAID THAT SHE CONTINUES TO SUSTAIN PSYCHOLOGICAL BLOWS, INCLUDING A RECENT REVELATION THAT PORTIONS OF JENNA’S REMAINS – INCLUDING HER ENTIRE RIB CAGE – ARE STILL BEING KEPT AT THE OFFICE OF THE CHIEF CORONER.
“THE FACT THAT JENNA’S RIB CAGE WAS NOT BURIED WITH HER BODY IS INFORMATION THAT HAD NEVER BEEN DISCLOSED AT ANY TIME SINCE HER DEATH,” MS. WAUDBY SAID. “I HAD NO IDEA THAT THIS HAD HAPPENED AND DID NOT KNOW THAT HER BODY WAS NOT BURIED INTACT. THIS HAS BEEN DEVASTATING TO ME AND MY FAMILY. NOW I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE FACT THAT MY BABY’S BODY ISN’T WHOLE. SHE CANNOT BE RESTING AS SHE SHOULD BE.”......
MS. WAUDBY RECALLED THAT, SHORTLY BEFORE A PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO PATHOLOGY ERRORS COMMENCED IN 2007, SHE WAS TOLD FOR THE FIRST TIME THAT THE BABYSITTER HAD SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER BABY.
“I HAD TO REVIEW PHOTOGRAPHS OF JENNA’S BODY, AND HER GENITAL AREAS, TO PREPARE ME FOR WHAT OTHERS WOULD SEE,” SHE SAID."
JUSTICE REPORTER KIRK MAKIN: THE GLOBE AND MAIL; (Kirk Makin is one of Canada's outstanding justice reporters. He covered the lengthy Goudge Inquiry - which examined many of Dr. Charles Smith's brutally bungled cases - from beginning to end. He is the author of "Redrum the Innocent," a monumental account of the wrongful prosecution of Guy Paul Morin, first published in 1992 by Viking.) A Globe and Mail photo shows Ms. Waudby, leaving a session of the Goudge Inquiry on Nov.12, 2007.)
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BACKGROUND: Brenda Waudby is the mother of Baby Jenna who was born in Peterborough, Ontario and died on January 22, 1997, at the age of 21 months. On January 21, 1997, at approximately 5 p.m., Ms. Waudby left Jenna in the care of a babysitter, J.D., who was 14 years old at the time. That night, Jenna was taken to a local hospital, where she died. Dr. Charles Smith performed the autopsy, concluded that Jenna had died of blunt abdominal trauma, and came up with a time of death that gave Ms. Waudby exclusive access to Baby Jenna at the time the fatal injuries were inflicted. Smith seized a dark, curly, male-type pubic hair from Baby Jenna's vulva-area, concealed it from the police officer who attended the autopsy, failed to submit it for testing, and had it in his possession when testifying at Ms. Waudby's preliminary hearing that he didn't know anything about it. He also failed to conduct a standard rape test which would likely have shown that Baby Jenna had been sexually assaulted. The Peterborough police force sent an undercover officer into Ms. Waudby's Narcotic's Anonymous group in an effort to get incriminating evidence against her. On September 18, 1997, the police charged Ms. Waudby with second-degree murder based on Smith's opinion. In October 1998, following a preliminary hearing, the court committed Ms. Waudby to stand trial on the charge, placing her one step closer to a sentence of life imprisonment for murdering her daughter if convicted. On June 15, 1999, the Crown withdrew the charge after receiving the unanimous opinions of several experts appointed by both the prosecution and the defence which utterly contradicted Smith's opinion and stated that Ms. Waudby could not possibly have been present when Jenna suffered her fatal injuries. (As a result of Smith's terribly flawed opinion, Ms. Waudby, who had lost her daughter through a horrific crime, found herself locked into a brutal battle with the local Children's Aid Society, to recover an older daughter from the authorities and to keep a newly born son.) In July, 2001, (two years later), the police began a reinvestigation of Jenna’s death. JD confessed to the police that he had sexually assaulted the two and a half years old baby and killed her. In December 2006, J.D. was permitted to plead guilty to manslaughter and the two counts of sexual assault were dropped. He was sentenced as a youth to 22 months in custody, followed by 11 months of community supervision. Smith has yet to face any criminal charges in relation to his conduct in the Waudby case. Like Dr. Smith's many other victims, Ms. Waudby has yet to receive a single cent of compensation for the utterly hellish ordeal she experienced at the hands of Dr. Charles Smith, the police and the prosecutors.
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"For nine years, Brenda Waudby suffered under the shadow of a wrongful prosecution for the 1997 murder of her two-year-old daughter," Justice Reporter Kirk Makin's Globe and Mail story published earlier today begins, under the heading, "Mother wrongfully prosecuted for daughter’s murder denied compensation."
(A sub-heading reads, "Woman fails to meet criteria for nervous shock even though autopsy mistakes led to seizure of another child.")
"Apparently, she didn’t suffer enough. The Peterborough, Ont., woman has been denied up to $25,000 from Ontario’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Board because she did not meet its criteria for suffering nervous shock," the story continues.
"The board has also denied a claim from Ms. Waudby’s other daughter, Justine Traynor, who was seized and placed in a foster home for two years after her mother was charged with murdering Justine’s sister, Jenna Mellor.
“I cannot understand or fathom the reasoning for this decision,” Ms. Waudby said Wednesday. “I cannot move forward until this nightmare, which is being sustained and perpetuated by the government, is over. I believe the government needs to quit dragging their heels and fix this. I am tired of being patient.
“My life has not changed,” she said. “My life is the same. The government has implemented many recommendations but the victims appear to have been forgotten completely.”
In a letter sent Wednesday to Attorney-General Chris Bentley, Ms. Waudby’s lawyer, Julie Kirkpatrick, asked him to intervene and reverse the board’s decision.
“With respect, the Board’s decisions are shockingly dismissive of the genuine, extreme and ongoing pain and suffering experienced by Ms. Waudby and Ms. Traynor as a result of Jenna Mellor’s murder,” Ms. Kirkpatrick wrote.
She noted that, due to autopsy mistakes made by disgraced pathologist Charles Smith, Ms. Waudby remained a prime suspect until 2006, when Jenna’s former babysitter was convicted in the killing.
The compensation board heard almost 4,000 cases in 2008-09, the most recent year for which statistics are available, and awarded a total of $43-million to crime victims or their dependants. The average award was $10,085. Approximately 8 per cent of the awards were made to citizens whose suffering was connected to a murder or an attempted murder.
Under board guidelines, nervous shock is assessed based on the degree of violence involved in the incident; the relationship between the applicant and the victim; the applicant’s presence at the scene of the incident and/or how the applicant learned of the occurrence; the degree of the emotional and psychological injuries suffered; and the type of treatment required.
Ms. Waudby said that she continues to sustain psychological blows, including a recent revelation that portions of Jenna’s remains – including her entire rib cage – are still being kept at (The Hospital for Sick Children);
“The fact that Jenna’s rib cage was not buried with her body is information that had never been disclosed at any time since her death,” Ms. Waudby said. “I had no idea that this had happened and did not know that her body was not buried intact. This has been devastating to me and my family. Now I have to live with the fact that my baby’s body isn’t whole. She cannot be resting as she should be.”
The 26-year-old man convicted in Jenna’s murder, who cannot be identified because he was a minor at the time of the crime, eventually confessed that he punched, poked and burned her to the point of death.
Ms. Waudby recalled that, shortly before a public inquiry into pathology errors commenced in 2007, she was told for the first time that the babysitter had sexually assaulted her baby.
“I had to review photographs of Jenna’s body, and her genital areas, to prepare me for what others would see,” she said.
“At the conclusion of the public inquiry, recommendations were made by Justice [Stephen] Goudge,” Ms. Waudby added. “These recommendations included looking into a viable scheme for compensation for the victims. The government has not made any announcements regarding this issue. This is shocking because almost two years have passed since the inquiry was completed.”"
The story can be found at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/mother-wrongfully-prosecuted-for-daughters-murder-denied-compensation/article1519261/
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
