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A 47-year-old man was found guilty Tuesday of disposing of the body of a premature baby by placing it in a dumpster behind his residence in an effort to conceal that it had been born.
Quebec Court Judge Serge Cimon delivered his decision at the Laval courthouse. He found the man, whose name cannot by published, guilty of a Criminal Code offence defined as disposing “of the dead body of a child, with intent to conceal the fact that its mother has been delivered of it, whether the child died before, during or after birth.” A conviction under the offence comes with a maximum two-year sentence.
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During the trial, the man claimed he was “on autopilot” that day because he was fatigued due to a health problem that affected his sleep.
Around 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 10, 2020, his roommate had the baby while she was inside their bathroom. She had complained of stomach pains and, the man claimed during his trial, he tried to help her and began cleaning up the mess while not aware there was a baby inside the toilet. He said he was so tired he didn’t know what to do when he realized what had happened. He placed the baby inside a cat litter box and placed it in the dumpster.
He then returned to bed to sleep and went to work to start a shift at 3 p.m. the same day. Around the same time, the woman confided in someone she knew that she had the baby. This set off a chain of events that led to the premature baby’s body being found in the dumpster.
A pathologist who examined the baby determined it was a 31-week foetus and was alive when it was born. She also determined that it either drowned in the toilet or suffocated inside the dumpster. The pathologist also testified that the premature baby could not breathe on its own at that point in its development but that it might have survived if it received immediate medical attention. Traces of methamphetamine and THC were found in the baby’s system.
The mother of the baby, who is now 40, was charged in 2020 with neglect to obtain assistance in childbirth and the same section of the Criminal Code that the man was convicted of on Tuesday. Her case is still pending and it returns to court at the end of July.
The man’s case will enter the sentencing stage at a later date.
This report will be updated.
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