Burlington couple sentenced to life in prison for murder of 12-year-old boy

Two women from Burlington have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a 12-year-old boy in their care.

In addition to murder, 45-year-old Brandy Cooney and 47-year-old Becky Hamber received sentences for forcible confinement and other related crimes.

The 12-year-old boy died in December 2022 after being starved and confined to a basement room. His younger brother survived the ordeal.

There were gasps in the Milton courtroom when the two women spoke out.

People couldn’t believe what they were hearing in court Friday when the convicted women spoke — one person even called it sickening, but the brother of the boy who died also spoke out and said justice has been done.

The 14-year-old, whose image and identity has been withheld for his protection, talked about what happened when he and his brother were living with two women who wanted to adopt them, Cooney and Hamber, in Burlington in 2022.

“It’s good that they got what they deserved and got sentenced to life in prison — that’s good,” the teen said.

WATCH MORE: Burlington women found guilty of killing 12-year-old boy, confining younger brother

Evidence at the trial showed the two boys were kept out of school, abused, with food restricted, isolated in a basement with exercise as punishment, and made to wear jumpsuits with zip-ties keeping them on.

In court on Friday, Hamber said to the surviving boy, “none of my words and actions were ever meant to harm you in any way,” and, “I did this out of love, never hate.”

Cooney suggested this is “a wrongful conviction” and “a political bureaucracy nightmare,” but the judge sent them to prison.

The judge gave the two women the maximum sentence possible: life in prison with no parole for 25 years, as required by the law, but also 10 years in jail for their treatment of the surviving child.

In court, the natural mother of the two boys said the pain of losing her son follows her every moment of her life and is difficult beyond words.

Sara Biasetti of St. Paul’s School, where the boys went for a time, told the court that staff at the school are still traumatized by what happened, and the lack of help for the boys in the face of numerous failures in the system.

“We knew that they were being confined, I was told by the younger brother that his older brother was confined in his bedroom downstairs,” said Biasetti. “I made calls to CAS (Children’s Aid Services), we were fighting to get these kids the help that they needed, and that for CAS to go in and do something.”

Carmelo Alfano and Kathi Wilson say they were neighbours with the boys in Burlington, but moved away because of what they saw, like the women yelling and screaming at the boys.

“Many of us have been left with nightmares, distressing thoughts, deep regret and guilt thinking that we could have done something,” said Wilson. “I will say that through the trial, you know, we’ve come to learn that this was a huge failure of the state, in not acting when they were warned by many people about what was happening.”

READ MORE: Trial resumes for Burlington prospective parents on trial for death of 12-year-old boy

Alfano says a GoFundMe page is going to be set up to help the surviving boy get an education.

“We want to give him a chance,” said Alfano. “This poor kid got everything taken away from him. It was, you know, you feel for the kid. You just fear for the kid and he didn’t deserve any of this at all.”

Meanwhile, a lawyer for Hamber, Monte MacGregor, was distressed by the case.

“The one thing you hope for is that the victims of this offense, in this crime, are able to do the best they can to repair themselves and move forward, and that particularly includes the young boy,” said MacGregor.

The surviving brother says they should have been protected from the women.

“I think there should be better checks on families, that there should be more frequent checks on kids,” he said.

An Indigenous spiritual ceremony, a smudging, was held in the courtroom before the sentencing was passed, but with the boys having an Indigenous background, leaders say this case shows the failures in Canada’s systems.

The defence lawyer isn’t saying whether or not there will be an appeal.

WATCH MORE: Crown says Burlington couple tortured, isolated boys in fatal abuse case