Death of Jeffrey Baldwin
Jeffrey Baldwin (January 20, 1997 – November 30, 2002) was a Canadian child whose death from septic shock after years of mistreatment by his grandparents, Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman, led to significant changes in policy by children's aid societies in the granting of custody of children to relatives.
Jeffrey Baldwin | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 20, 1997 |
| Died | November 30, 2002 (aged 5) Ontario, Canada |
Life
Jeffrey was born in the Doctor's Hospital, now part of the Toronto Western Hospital, in Toronto, the son of Yvonne Kidman and Richard Baldwin. On April 28, 1998, he and his older sister were taken by the Catholic Children's Aid Society after allegations of abuse were levelled against their parents. They were given into the custody of their maternal grandparents, Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman.
In 2000, a worker with the Catholic Children's Aid Society noticed a bruise under Jeffrey's eye, but this was dismissed as an accident and no action was taken.
According to later court testimony, Jeffrey and his sister were kept in a locked room at night with furnace vents shut, and when released were forced to eat with their hands from a mat on the floor. James Mills, the boyfriend of Jeffrey's aunt who also lived in the house, declared that Jeffrey's grandmother did not love him or his sister and that they were purely a "dollars and cents" matter, as his grandparents received social assistance for their care.
On the evening of November 30, 2002, the grandparents called 911 to report that Jeffrey was no longer breathing. Upon arrival, emergency workers noticed that his body was "covered in sores, bruises and abrasions". His weight at death was slightly less than his weight at his first birthday, almost five years earlier.
Court case
On March 19, 2003, the grandparents were arrested and charged with second-degree murder for their role in his death. The court declared they had kept Jeffrey locked in a bedroom, where he lived in his own feces, and left him to drink from a toilet. The judge was told that the pair used the children as a source of income, collecting government support checks while offering little in return. On April 7, 2006, they were convicted of second-degree murder by Justice David Watt in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Sentencing was delivered on June 9, 2006. Bottineau was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment (until 2028) and Kidman 20 years (until 2026), before they respectively become eligible for parole.
Statue
On November 22, 2013, Todd Boyce, a fellow Canadian unrelated to Jeffrey Baldwin, started a $25,000 crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo over two months to erect a bronze statue in Greenwood Park, Toronto depicting Jeffrey dressed as Superman, a superhero he loved. $36,015 was raised.[1] In July 2014, DC Comics denied permission to use the "S" in the Superman logo on the statue. However, the decision was later reversed and the use of the logo was allowed.[2] The statue was unveiled in the park on October 18, 2014.[3]
See also
- Child abuse
- Murder of Nubia Barahona
- Death of Nathaniel Carver
- Murder of Victoria Climbié
- Death of Lydia Schatz
- Nannie Doss - who murdered her two grandsons
References
- "Jeffrey Baldwin Memorial". Indiegogo. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
- Gallant, Jacques (July 9, 2014). "Jeffrey Baldwin statue will get its Superman shield". Toronto Star. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
- "Jeffrey Baldwin statue unveiled in Greenwood Park". CBC News. October 18, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2014.