MANDEL: Alleged stabber girl in swarming case sentenced to 16 months probation

Article content

As expected, the last girl to be sentenced in the deadly swarming of Kenneth Lee has avoided any more time in a youth jail – again, in part, because she was subjected to unconstitutional strip searches while in detention.

The 17-year-old, dressed all in black with her hair pulled back in a ponytail, was asked to stand as Superior Court Justice Philip Campbell told her he was giving her the maximum three-year youth sentence for manslaughter – but she would be credited with 20 months for the actual eight months she spent in custody, leaving 16 months probation, including 12 months in an Intensive Support and Supervision Program (ISSP).

“I consider (her) conduct, even in the frenzied atmosphere in which it occurred, to be a grave moral lapse and an act of needless cruelty toward an innocent man in an incident with fatal consequences,” the judge said.

But Campbell believed she was sincerely sorry and noted that both defence and Crown agreed she’s “made striking personal progress in the face of challenges from her upbringing and mental health diagnoses.”

We certainly hope so.

Her name protected by a publication ban, she was alleged by the Crown to be the stabber who inflicted that fatal wound to Lee’s heart during the violent attack by the eight girls on Dec. 18, 2022. But Campbell acquitted her of second-degree murder in May, finding that she did stab him “relatively harmlessly” under the armpit with small eyebrow scissors and appeared on video to be lunging toward him again, but he couldn’t conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that she inflicted the deeper, stab wound that killed him.

“I do view (her) use of a bladed instrument, even a small one, and her evident effort to use it a second time on Mr. Lee as distinctly aggravating in the determination of sentencing and in considering parity with her co-accused. I regard that finding, however, as effectively set off by the efforts (she) has made since that night to undertake reform and personal growth and her evident commitment to living a law-abiding and responsible life.”

After delivering his final sentence to the last of the four girls who have appeared before him in Superior Court – four others pleaded guilty in the lower court – Campbell told her he wanted to offer her some heartfelt advice.

The judge urged her to “wholeheartedly” engage in her ISSP and let the counsellors help her.

“I hope you will look at 12 months of intensive support and supervision, which will involve rules and expectations as well as benefits, as a chance to get yourself ready for the decades of independent adult life that lie just before you,” he told her.

Campbell also advised her not to minimize what she’s done.

“Be honest with professionals. Be honest with yourself,” he advised.

Most touchingly, the sage judge told her not to forget the defenceless man the girls killed that night in a frenzy of irrational violence.

“You said on Wednesday in your eloquent apology that you cannot imagine the pain his loved ones have felt. And I am sure that is true. But you can try to imagine,” he said softly.

Campbell urged her to read the “aching loss” in the emotional victim impact statements Lee’s family submitted to the court, where they described a beloved, kind-hearted man who was planning to come home to them for Christmas.

“Happiness was within reach,” his sister Helen Shum wrote of her brother’s expected return. “But sadly, this reunion would never happen.”

In all these months and months of focus on these eight young criminals, so little time has been spent on the victim they treated like a pack of hyenas on a piece of meat.

“Try to imagine what the violent death of a person you love would mean to you, and think about what that kind of loss can teach you about how to live your own life,” the judge told her.

“When your probation ends, you have paid your debt to society. That’s a familiar term for completing your sentence. But Mr. Lee, though dead, will stay with you, and I urge you to think about him and to welcome him.”

Finally, Campbell urged her to atone for her role in his death by committing acts of kindness.

“And while it cannot bring Mr. Lee back to life, it can keep his memory alive for as long as you live,” he concluded. “My best wishes to you.”

And then with a hug for her waiting mom, the young killer left the downtown courtroom, hopefully for the very last time.

mmandel@postmedia.com