Fathers who abuse their triplets: what should happen to this soldier-offender? Was the crown too lenient?

Question

“A soldier who squeezed his infant triplets so hard he broke their bones 19 times has been sentenced to 18 months of house arrest and ordered to undergo psychological treatment.

Provincial court Judge Marvin Garfinkle rejected the Crown's request for an 18-month jail term…

Court was told the soldier and his common-law wife were struggling with the care of their triplet sons and an older toddler last year. Lacking sleep and under emotional and financial stress, the soldier admitted to habitually squeezing the infants in order to stop them from crying.

It wasn't until a few months later that a doctor's X-rays revealed that the triplets had a total of 19 fractures between them - not clean breaks, but a buckling of the bones. The soldier said he didn't realized until then that he was hurting the children when he squeezed them

Answer 1

No excuse for hurting children and infants. However, I believe he should be charged and serve some jail time but therapy is by far the most important. The best that can come out of this is he can overcome his problems and raise his kids appropriately

edit: yea it doesn't matter if he had done that because he was traumatised. Still no excuse, but rehab alone may have been enough. As it is I stick by jail time, and 18 months seems reasonable.

Answer 2

well, he is lucky. since its just house arrest. and he hasn't faced the military court yet either. they have their own way of dealing with law breakers.

people need to learn to ask for help before its too late, and others need to learn to give them the help, and not ignor them

Answer 3

If he had done this once because he snapped psychologically, then I would support rehabilitation for him.

It seems to be a pattern of behavior, however, since he has done it multiple times to multiple children, which constitutes serial child abuse. Into the klink with him, I say.

Answer 4

Did they fry that women who drowned her 5 children in a yub in america?  andrea yates or something?

Answer 5

This is a very disturbing story.  I'm sure it's incredibly stressful taking care of triplets but there is no way that you couldn't know you were hurting an infant.

I'm not saying they should throw him in jail.  That wouldn't help his family at all.  But, I do think he should have mandatory therapy and anger management.  I'd hate to think that a judge's decision could end up hurting innocent children.

Answer 6

He needs 5-10 years in a federal prison and he can get any "psychological help" he needs there, but he must be kept from ever seeing his children again and just because he is a soldier does not give him carte blanche to seriously injure and abuse children this way. s***w his PTSD, his children will have the memory of their father almost murdering them because he can't control his own temper. NO EXCUSE for hurting a CHILD EVER.

EDIT: CASSIUS, so you object to stating this man is WRONG and a danger to his children? Do you squeeze that kid in your avatar? No? Why not? Because you know it is wrong? Jerk.

Answer 7

I feel bad for him. His father ran off when he was 4, his mother dropped him off at high school and ran away. He joined the army probably to "make a difference" and went to afganistan just to peel potatos all day

Hes probably not the brightest match in the box, all he knew is if he squeezed his babies they would stop crying, how long was shaking a baby a way to get them to stop crying before some one realized shaken baby syndrom was the result? Beyond being stressed out and probably depressed, he clearly needs help, especialy if he didn't even realize that he was hurting the children, which apparently his wife didn't realize either...

There definately should be a period where he isn't allowed access to his kids beyond highly supervised times designated by the state. I think psychiatric counceling and long term parole is appropriate

Hes very lucky that things were stoped before he killed or maimed his children

Answer 8

I don't know what kind of rehabilitation would help a person who squeezes an infant to the point of fracturing their bones.  Maybe "Use your fricken head 101"?   And to say you squeezed an infant to stop it from crying is like saying I threw gas on the fire to put it out. Makes no sense.  Definitely he should not be allowed to be alone with his children, I don't think house arrest is harsh enough but at the same time he does seem truly regretfull so ditto on jail time... I really don't know, I'm at a loss on this one all I can say is this man should not reproduce anymore.  All new parents struggle with finances and lack of sleep... and most of them do it without harming their children.

Answer 9

It doesn't sound like he was malicious so he isn't a danger to society so he doesn't need to be sent to prison. The only people he is a danger to are his children and since they are now under the mothers care, they are probablly fine. He is now aware of what he was once oblivious to and with some more information in the form of councelling he could become as good a parent as any. Some people don't realize how fragile a baby is or think that a babies body is tougher than it actually is, it's just unfortunate that this man (the fact that he is a soldier is irrelevant) held his children hard enough to cause such damage.

Answer 10

no jail time. But therapy once a week for 3 years.

     I doubt he would do it again but if he really wanted to hurt them it would be clean breaks of the bone and they would most likely be dead by now.

         It seems to be more accidental stupidity.

  I know the burn him alive crowd will becoming by soon but the same excuse he gave is the same most mothers give when they murder there children and alot of the times they get little to no punishment.

Answer 11

It's fairly certain that once he arrives in prison and word of his crime leaks out, some of the other poor traumatised sleep deprived fellows inside will be giving *him* a little squeeze.

Obviously the crown was too lenient, especially compared with cases such as the 'cool mum' (ridiculous media title) who received a 40 year prison sentence after participating in a gang bang (of her) with her son's 15 and 16 year old school friends.

I think if you compare those crimes, it's pretty clear which is in the 'worst category' and which is not.

It's interesting that some who decry the trauma an infant boy receives from being circumcised, find crushing three infants hard enough to cause fractures in order to 'stop them crying' should not be thought of too harshly.

There's no doubt that counselling, support and treatment should be offered this man, and should have been offered BEFORE he harmed his kids, but there is also little doubt he knew what he was doing, and was doing it in a premeditated way, with the intention of achieving the result he wanted, not what was best for the children.

Cheers :-)