Edmonton women who confined kids to basement receive 8-year sentences

Two women who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault after two children were found confined to an Edmonton basement in 2017 have been sentenced to eight years behind bars.

The women, who cannot be named to protect the children’s identities, received their sentence on Thursday afternoon.

In her decision, Justice Gaylene Kendell ruled that both of the women’s “moral blameworthiness” was high. She concluded the women knew what they were doing, knew it was hurting the children and that they tried to hide it from others.

The women, who were 23 and 24 when they were charged, pleaded guilty last September to the aggravated assault and unlawful confinement of two girls – aged three and six.

In December 2017, police responded to a home in northeast Edmonton to check on the welfare of five children. The children, all under the age of 10, were found in “a shocking environment and physical state,” Edmonton police said at the time.

All five children were taken to the Stollery Children’s Hospital. Three of the children were treated and released, while two were admitted with serious injuries.

An agreed statement of facts presented in court stated one woman was the mother of the two abused children and the other was the mother of three other kids in the home.

The court document stated the women hired a babysitter and went out partying. They told the babysitter their children were sleeping, but she later heard knocking on a basement door that was blocked by a dresser.