Inquest to Be Held into Death of B.C. Three-Year-Old Killed in 2001 By Uncle

By JEREMY HAINSWORTH

VANCOUVER (CP) – An inquest will be held into the death of a three-year-old B.C. girl who was transferred from foster care only to be killed by her uncle, the B.C. Coroners Service has announced.

Halaina Lascelle died on Texada Island April 30, 2001.

Her uncle, Douglas Boyd, was convicted of second-degree murder in the case in 2003.

His trial heard how Boyd walked into his niece’s bedroom on Texada Island and slit her throat as she lay in bed.

The Ministry of Children and Family Development, doctors, a mental-health counsellor and police all had contacts with the family before the murder, and some officials knew of Boyd’s homicidal thoughts.

Still, the girl was left in the home.

The 32-year-old man had been in a psychiatric unit at Powell River hospital less than two months before the murder, and a doctor and a mental-health counsellor testified at trial they knew about Boyd’s thoughts of killing his niece.

A lawsuit filed in 2003 by the girl’s mother, Donna Lascelle, said the toddler was in the care of the province when she was placed in the Boyd home.

“She had been in foster care for some time,” confirmed coroner Rose Stanton who will head the inquest.

“She had been apprehended from her mother. This was a Family Relations Act placement.”

Stanton said she believes the ministry was aware of Boyd’s mental health problems.

“It was certainly acknowledged in the director’s report,” she said.

She said one of the child’s siblings was also in the home of Douglas and Marylou Boyd.

But, she adds: “I don’t know that the child (Halaina) fell through the cracks” of the province’s child protection services.

Stanton said it took five years to call an inquest because her office has been short-staffed.

The inquest will begin Oct. 2 at the Powell River Court.

Stan Hagen, minister of Children and Family Development, was in Dawson Creek on Wednesday and unavailable for comment.

His ministry has been under fire for more than a year for the way it has handled child deaths since the Liberals took office in 2001.

Retired judge Ted Hughes conducted a review of B.C.’s child protection system earlier this year and concluded deep budget cuts, constant changes in leadership and major shifts in policy stretched British Columbia’s child protection system to the breaking point.

The mother’s suit, which was later discontinued, alleges the government did not properly investigate the Boyds’ backgrounds, parenting capacity and mental health prior to placing the child in their custody.

She further alleged the government failed to monitor the home to ensure the child’s ongoing safety.

In a November 2003 statement of defense, the government denied all the allegations.

Boyd’s trial was told by neuropsychologist Dr. Henry Viljoen that, on the day of the murder, Boyd had reached a point where his ability to make judgments and think through his actions were impaired.

Stanton said in a news release that the inquest will allow a jury to make recommendations aimed at preventing deaths under similar circumstances in the future.

She doubted Boyd would be called to testify at the inquest.

A similar inquest earlier this year into the 2002 death of 19-month-old Sherry Charlie recommended the province reinstate the office of the children’s commissioner.

Hughes also recommended the appointment of a new, independent body to oversee the child welfare system.

He recommended the creation of a children and youth representative who would report independently to the legislature in the same way as the auditor general, privacy commissioner and ombudsman.

The government has said it will do that, as well as follow up on Hughes’ other recommendations.

Maurine Karagianis, the NDP’s children and families critic, said the length of time it has taken for the Lascelle’s case to get before an inquest points to the need for a children’s commissioner.

“This is exactly the kind of resource that could have looked into this earlier and determined why there were gaps in communications so that such a situation could occur,” the Esquimalt-Metchosin MLA said.

“From this death and others like it, there are many lessons for us to learn about how we manage these files on children’s care and how we place them in family environments.

“It’s unfortunate that it takes such a long time for those facts to become known and therefore it makes it more difficult to resolve those issues within the system and to fix them.”