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Two people face hundreds of charges in Toronto's
'most prolific and disturbing case of child sexual abuse'
Sean Davidson
CTV News Toronto Multi-Platform Writer
Published Feb. 28, 2022 10:01 a.m. PST
Two people from Toronto are facing hundreds of charges after allegedly sexually and physically assaulting dozens of people, including children, over the past 17 years.
Toronto police said Monday the alleged assaults took place in the Danforth Avenue and Dawes Road area and the Danforth Road and Eglington Avenue East area.
According to investigators, many of the assaults were recorded and uploaded to the Internet.
To date, charges have been laid in relation to 41 victims, police said.
Martin 'Mark' Wettlaufer, 37, and Kathleen Wardlaw, 42, were arrested and charged with hundreds of offences relating to the investigation, police said.
Police did not say when Wettlaufer and Wardlaw were arrested. The charges have not been proven in court. Police said they still have a number of unidentified victims and are seeking the public’s assistance in identifying them.
"I will say that this is the most prolific and disturbing case of child sexual abuse and exploitation in our service's history," Const. Alex Li told CP24 on Monday afternoon. "Having spoken to our investigators we still have a number of unidentified victims and are looking for the assistance of the public to have these victims come forward to police."
According to police, approximately 80 per cent of the victims are children.
"We want to reassure these individuals that we have two people arrested who we believe are responsible for these charges and that we have different avenue of resources to help protect these victims as well get them the help that they need," he said.
Police are asking anyone who believes they were victimized, or has information about the accused, to contact police by calling 416-808-7521.
Enraged mother threw boiling water on her husband
for sexually assaulting her children
Sarah Biren, Freelance Writer
The Premier Daily
Posted: January 18, 2022
Corinna Smith, 59, poured boiling water with sugar over her sleeping husband, Michael Baines, 80. Her daughter had told her that Michael had sexually abused her and her brother when they were children. “Livid” and “fuming” Smith boiled up two kettles of water and mixed it with three bags of sugar in a garden bucket. Then she went into the downstairs bedroom where he lay in bed sleeping and poured the molten sugar over him. She was later prosecuted for these actions and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Punishing Her Husband for Allegedly Abusing Her Children
According to prosecutors, the sugar “made the liquid more viscous, thicker and stickier, so that it stays on the skin and causes greater damage and that is exactly what it did”. Baines suffered burns on 36% of his body. He was admitted into the Whiston Hospital Burns Units critical care unit and then into the high dependency unit. He endured skin grafts and surgeries but he eventually passed away due to his injuries five weeks after the incident, on August 18, 2021.
On July 14 of that year, Smith’s daughter told her that Baines had sexually abused her and her brother “for many years when they were children”. Her brother, Craig, had taken his own life in 2007 at the age of 25. He was troubled throughout his life, even going to prison for assault. Before his death, he had admitted to his mother that the person he assaulted was a pedophile who had “touched him sexually“. Years later, Smith connected this incident with her daughter’s claim and administered punishment on the one she thought responsible.
At court, Judge Amanda Yip, QC, stated to her, “You found it difficult to take everything in, but made the connection between what Craig had said the day before he died and what your daughter was telling you. You were understandably very upset. You were described as being livid and fuming at the thought of what had been done to your children.”
Later on, Judge Yip stated, “Killing Mr. Baines also took away any opportunity for the allegations to be tested. That took away his right to a fair trial, bearing in mind that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. I have no doubt that this has caused untold pain to Mr. Baines’ children. The allegations are left hanging but unproven…”
Corinna Smith was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Image Credit: Cheshire Police
“Her actions were deliberate and considered”
Prosecutors made their case that despite the understandable reason, she did inflict fatal injuries on her husband.
“We cannot and do not say whether these allegations made about Michael Baines are true or not… but that is not the issue for you in this case because the prosecution certainly accept that these allegations were made, and that Corinna Baines believed them to be true at the time that she caused the fatal injuries to Michael.“
If they had taken the time to establish whether the accusations were true or not, it might have gone some ways toward justifying Corinne's actions. If the son's life was ruined and cut short because of the abuse by his father, I can't help but think that there is some justification in his mother's actions.
Smith had contested for manslaughter, saying her anger caused her to lose control. However, this argument felt weak when considering the planning that went into the attack, including adding the sugar and boiling water for 13 minutes to fill the bucket.
Mark Rhind, QC, said: “The prosecution case is that her actions were deliberate and considered, that whilst she would obviously have been very upset and distressed about what she had heard, the evidence will demonstrate that she was in control and acted in anger and to extract vengeance for what she believed that Michael had done. We say that she intended either to kill Michael or to cause him really serious harm and so she is guilty of murder.”
Additionally, after pouring the boiling water, Smith left the house and went to a neighbor where she said, “I’ve hurt him really bad, I think I’ve killed him”. The neighbor called the police and ambulance, who found Baines in agony as the skin on his arm and hand peeled off. He said to them, “I’m badly burned. I’m burned all over. She poured boiling water all over me. I just want to die.”
“The sugar placed into the water makes it viscous. It becomes thicker and stickier and sinks into the skin better. It left Michael in agony and rather than call the emergency services she wasted time by going to a house nine doors away to tell a neighbour, who she wasn’t close to, what she had done. Michael was an elderly man who fought for his life after the attack but sadly in the end he passed away.”
These actions would seem to indicate that she wasn't in control of her faculties and therefore more likely guilty of manslaughter than murder. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine how an 80-year-old man could survive such torture.
This is where a little faith would have gone a long way. If Corinne had known that her husband would stand before God and give an accounting of his life, she might have been a little more patient and avoided prison.
The jury found her guilty and Smith was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 12 years before being able to be considered for parole.
Police warn female Ukrainian refugees about harassment,
luring at Berlin train station
By Calley Hair
Ukrainian-Polish border at Berlin central station Hauptbahnhof in Berlin, Germany on Friday.
Photo by Clemens Bilan/EPA-EFE
March 12 (UPI) -- German police are warning female refugees arriving from Ukraine via train to stay vigilant after receiving several reports of men harassing or luring young women upon arrival at Berlin Central Station.
Women arriving at Hauptbahnhof station alone or with young children have been approached by men offering rides or a place to stay, According to German public news outlet Deutsche Welle.
Some men reportedly posed as volunteers, capitalizing on the chaos of thousands of refugees arriving at once.
The men tend to be "conspicuous" and legitimate volunteers have been instructed to keep an eye out, a federal police spokesman told the outlet.
How would they be conspicuous? Would they be west Asian or African? It's frustrating that the media doesn't tell us.
He added that the department had seen no evidence that kidnapping, sexual assault or human trafficking had actually been carried out.
How would they know? It may be days before the kidnapped even know they are kidnapped.
In one complaint, a woman said a man tried to lure her with aid upon arrival at the train station, police said.
"We currently have a huge number of people who want to help with honest intentions and, on the other hand, people who want to use this situation for their own purposes," the spokesman told DW.
Berlin's Federal Police confirmed in a post to Twitter that it had been receiving reports of suspicious behavior at the station.
"Please contact the police immediately if you are offered money for accommodation or observe people doing so," the tweet said in German.
Can these women even speak German or English?
Monika Cissek-Evans, a woman who runs a counseling center for victims of human trafficking, told DW that her organization is working on a flyer to post at Berlin Central Station and other train stations across the country.
"Don't let go of your passport. Keep your phone with you at all times. Take a picture of the license plate before you get into a car. Ask to see an ID when you are offered an apartment or room. Write down the name and address. Be wary if someone promises you a lot of money quickly," the flyer states.
The German government has offered to provide free short-term living arrangements for up to 300,000 Ukrainian refugees, including accommodations for 100,000 people through a partnership with vacation rental company AirBnb.
Data from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees shows that nearly 2.6 million refugees have fled the country since the invasion began Feb. 24. More than 1.5 million have fled to Poland alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday for more than an hour to call for a cease-fire in Ukraine and a diplomatic end to the invasion.
It's awesome that Berliners are supporting Ukrainian refugees, they certainly need the help and encouragement. But there are evil people who will take advantage of the chaos so that women and children will simply disappear, to be used in sex trafficking.
Surely, the German government can register all these people immediately as well as the volunteers who are offering them a place to stay. Have they learned anything from the 2015 exodus?
Surely, the German government can register all these people immediately as well as the volunteers who are offering them a place to stay. Have they learned anything from the 2015 exodus?
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