Burned, Beaten, Half-Starved, Sexually Abused Son of Mountie with PTSD

Ottawa Mountie and his wife found guilty

of abusing man's 11-year-old son

WARNING: This story contains disturbing details
CBC News 

    An Ottawa Mountie and his partner have been found guilty of abusing the Mountie's son. 
    (Courtroom sketches by Sarah Wallace)

A Mountie and his wife have been found guilty of what Ottawa police sources have called the "worst case of abuse" the force has seen, involving the Mountie's then 11-year-old son.

The RCMP officer — who is suspended from the force without pay — was arrested in February 2013 along with his wife.

They had both pleaded not guilty to charges including aggravated assault, failing to provide the necessaries of life and forcible confinement. She faced an additional charge of assault with a weapon, and he faced additional charges of sexual assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon.

On Monday, the 45-year-old Mountie was found guilty of aggravated assault, sexual assault causing bodily harm, forcible confinement and failing to provide the necessaries of life.

The boy's 38-year-old stepmother was found guilty of assault with a weapon and failing to provide the necessaries of life.

The pair cannot be named due to a publication ban that protects the boy's identity. He is now 14 years old.

'Half-starved, burned and battered'

Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger said Monday that the video evidence presented in court was unequivocal and overwhelming, and he rejected the defence team's argument that the Mountie was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Last fall, the court was shown several videos from 2013, seized from the Mountie's phone, of the boy naked, crying and restrained in the basement of his family's home. 

The videos, made one month before the couple was arrested in February 2013, show the small boy breathing heavily and looking gaunt with his ribs sticking out. A man is heard repeatedly taunting and humiliating the boy, who was tied to the basement wall.

Onlookers inside the courtroom were seen wiping away tears and the last video left Maranger shielding his face.

"This was a very difficult trial. That a parent could do the things that were done to [the victim] was gut-wrenching," Maranger said on Monday in his decision.

"That being said, however, the fact that this half-starved, burned and battered 11-year-old could somehow summon the strength to escape his cruel captivity and later seemingly rise above it, is a testament to the indomitability of the human spirit," Maranger added.


Mountie said he suffers from PTSD

During the trial, the Mountie told court he had been diagnosed with severe PTSD, chronic depression and dissociative personality disorder as a result of the sexual assaults he endured when he was eight years old.

He testified he beat his son because he was experiencing flashbacks of the men he claims sexually assaulted him as a young boy in Lebanon.

He felt "the devil lived" in his son, whom he described as being "morally wrong," volatile and defiant. The Mountie admitted to tying his son up in the basement with chains and plastic ties.

The boy testified he was "scared to death," and that his father would threaten him with a revolver among other punishments, which included hundreds of pushups, praying on his knees for hours and being locked in the bathroom. 

Another horrific example of the devastating and inter-generational effects of child sex abuse. It may also reflect the spiritual aspect of child sex abuse.

"I Have Never Met a CSA Survivor Who Has Not Been Suicidal" - Psychologist

By Adele Ryan McDowell, Psychologist, teacher, and writer who likes looking at life through the big viewfinder.

The Connection Between Suicide And
Childhood Sexual Abuse

Circling (circulating in?) the international news is the story of the assisted suicide of a young Dutch woman due to long-term childhood sexual abuse. This woman in her 20's asked for -- and was granted -- euthanasia by lethal injection.

She requested an end to her life due to intractable trauma (i.e., severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and concomitant medical issues (i.e., advanced anorexia, chronic depression and hallucinations) that left her primarily bedridden.

Her story has raised questions and concerns.

As a mental health professional who has worked first-hand with childhood sexual abuse survivors, I have witnessed the repercussions of the compounded and complicated trauma of childhood sexual abuse. In fact, I have never met a childhood sexual abuse survivor who has not been suicidal. This is not surprising: inordinate pain (of any kind) and unabated trauma are primary factors in suicidality.

Suicide is always an option

In my experience, childhood sexual abuse survivors are highly intelligent, deeply sensitive, intuitive, creative and protectors of the innocents. They are also dissociative, prone to self-harm, frequently anorexic and struggle regularly with suicidal thoughts and feelings. As one survivor told me, "Suicide is always an option."

And why is this?

Sexually abused children are violated in every possible way. They can no longer trust. They have been lied to, threatened and sworn to secrecy or someone else in the family will be hurt. Their small bodies have been exploited, sometimes shared, photographed and repeatedly injured, often irreparably, due to sexual violence.

The abuser(s) constantly programs the child's thinking, manipulates situations and entrains the child to never speak out or cry as the retributions will be dire. It is a no-win, powerless situation that is utterly terrifying. The child believes what he or she has been told. The child is made to feel at fault. There is precious little safety, control or peace. Every day is on high-alert.

Childhood sexual abuse is a perpetual, ongoing horror which leads to many years, if not a lifetime, of sleepless nights, flashbacks, nightmares, body memories and triggers that can send a survivor into a well of despair, physical pain, and unrelenting panic and terror. Anorexia or other eating disorders can be a kind of coping response in order to garner some kind of control over one's world and feelings when everything inside says die, die, die.

Potential danger is everywhere. The adult who was a sexually abused child might see their abuser's face at the market, on the bus, around the corner. This is the nature of trauma, to be locked into a place of huge fear, feeling with absolute certainty that harm and pain are imminently close. In short, you never feel safe.

This complicated and profound trauma captures the brain. We recognize and acknowledge this kind of trauma in many of our combat soldiers as well. However, the trauma of childhood sexual abuse is often relegated to a back corner. The reality of childhood sexual abuse makes people very uncomfortable.

CSA a global phenomena

Some adults minimize the accounts of their children because they think the children are prone to exaggeration and, equally, they cannot accept that these horrific acts would have ever been done by another adult within the family circle. Some parents carry their own history of childhood sexual abuse and are frozen in their ability to respond or take action. There is no easy answer, but the truth is childhood sexual abuse, in varying degrees of severity, exists worldwide.

I have worked with parents who have blatantly refused to acknowledge the reality of their child's experience. And if, in fact, they do believe that their children are telling the truth, there is the bigger problem of why are the grown-ups, frequently parents, doing this to their children. All the way around it is a nasty, harmful business that crushes a child's soul and hijacks their animating life force.

And those who survive the abuse and live to tell their truth and reclaim their bodies have strong, enduring wills. It takes tremendous courage and fortitude to do the intense psychotherapeutic work of dealing with the deep-seated memories, the trauma, the betrayals and to defuse the layers of terror and horror. This work can literally take decades. It is painful unto itself. This work is not a straight linear path, but more of a serpentine, multi-layered exploration where the light is practically non-existent and the footing is tricky.

In her early 20s

According to the press reports, the young woman was in her early 20's and endured sexual abuse from ages five to 15. That is 10 years, 10 formative years of constant abuse. The doctors deemed her incurable, which is rare and, also, speaks volumes about the deeply wounded state of her being. This young women had sought professional help, but, alas, in her particular case there was no lasting gain and she slipped further away, locked in a dark world of terror.

I have enormous compassion for this young woman and her final choice. Sometimes, too much is simply too much.

This young woman found a hard-won peace on her own terms. I'm heartbroken for her pain and the suffering she endured. However, she has left a powerful legacy. She has made the world more aware of the severe, life-threatening trauma of childhood sexual abuse and the indelible marks it leaves on the psyche.

May she rest in peace, at long last.

If you or someone you know is at risk please contact your nearest Crisis Centre.