Nanny Identified

November 1, 2008 permalink

In the Alberta Kafka foster child death case, where all names have been suppressed, we have finally heard the name of a person involved with the family. The nanny was 24-year-old Julia Gee. Her testimony paints a grim picture of the care of the child.

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Deceased tot left in cold garage overnight

October 31, 2008, By TONY BLAIS, COURT BUREAU, Edmonton Sun

EDMONTON -- A foster mother accused of killing a three-year-old boy in her care left him overnight in an unheated garage wearing only a pull-up diaper, a jury heard yesterday.

Testifying at the foster mom's second-degree murder trial, the woman's former nanny also said the boy had bruising across his whole forehead when she found him on the floor on that Jan. 25, 2007, morning.

"He was curled up and sleeping on the mat. He didn't have any clothes on," said Julia Gee, 24, adding the boy's diaper was soaked with urine.

The live-in nanny testified the foster mother asked her later if she was mad at her for leaving the boy in the frigid attached garage and said she told her she wasn't. "I just said I was shocked," testified Gee.

The nanny told the jury the foster mom told her the boy got the bruising on his forehead from falling on his head without putting out his hands and said she also noticed welts and bruises on the foster mom's forearms.

Gee testified the woman had the boy walk up and down the stairs twice a day to strengthen his legs and said he was a bit slow doing it the day after the garage incident.

That night she heard the boy crying after she had gone to bed and was called up later by the foster mother to watch him doing his stair exercises a little after midnight.

She ended up falling asleep about 2 a.m. after hearing more crying and some thumping and was then woken up by the foster mom and told the boy was "acting strange."

She came upstairs from her basement bedroom and found him collapsed on the floor, gasping for air.

An ambulance was called and the boy was taken to hospital where he died the next day.

She testified she never saw the boy bang his head on the wall or the floor and said she also never saw him punch, kick or hit anyone in the home.

Under cross-examination, defence lawyer Brian Beresh suggested his client had never put the boy in the garage, but the nanny replied that she had "more than once."

Beresh also suggested that it had been Gee who had put the boy in the garage, however she denied that was true.

The nanny also admitted smoking marijuana in the garage once after the kids were asleep.

In a 911 tape played in court earlier, the now-34-year-old foster mother told the evaluator the boy had been "harming himself" recently, and stated he had bruises on his body from throwing himself onto the floor the day before.

A medical examiner testified the boy died of cranial trauma and told jurors it was from a blow to the head.

In his opening jury address, Beresh said defence medical experts will testify the fatal injury was likely caused by the boy's self-abusive behaviour and was an "accident."

Source: Edmonton Sun