MANDEL: No more time in custody for two girls guilty in deadly swarming

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A moment of sanity emerged in a downtown youth court.

Two girls who pleaded guilty in the vicious swarming death of Ken Lee had hoped their charges would be stayed because their rights had been violated under the Charter when they were strip searched and left completely naked when in custody.

How outrageous that would have been viewed by the rest of us — and Ontario Court Justice David Rose agreed.

Still, both teens are not going to be doing any more time in custody for the violent Dec. 18, 2022 attack. Instead, the girl, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the swarming death of the homeless man — and who is still remarkably remorseless — was credited with 15 months in pre-sentence custody and will now have to do two years of the Intensive Support and Supervision Program (ISSP) as probation in the community to address her many concerning issues.

Her co-accused, who pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm and has taken full responsibility for her part, was sentenced to 12 months probation.

Rose acknowledged the girls’ rights were violated by the “troubling” routine strip searches — but found that could be remedied in his sentencing — and not by the wholesale throwing out of the serious charges.

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“I find rather easily that strip searching (girl 1) and (girl 2) does not rise to the level where it would shock the conscious of the community to the point where stay at proceedings is appropriate. Rather, I find the opposite,” he said in his lengthy ruling Tuesday morning.

“It would shock the community to stay the charges against (girl 1) and (girl 2), particularly where alternate remedies are available. Routine strip searching … was offensive, yet nowhere near the level where the court should stay the charges. For these reasons, the application to stay the charges is dismissed.”

Rose also found the impact of strip searching was brief, even if the girl who pleaded to manslaughter underwent seven searches, and the other was searched three times. But going forward, the judge said this is the first finding about the unlawfulness of routine strip searching youth. “It is expected that the ministry will take this into account when revisiting a search policy and regulations for young persons in custody.”

Police said Lee, 59, was attacked by a group of eight girls, ranging in age from 13 to 16, when he came to the aid of a friend who was being accosted by the drunk teens at a parkette, at York and Front Sts.

“This was a vicious, cowardly assault by eight teens on a homeless man in full public view. Mr. Lee was vulnerable because he was living on the streets and did nothing to bring this on,” Rose said.

The judge has already sentenced two other girls who pleaded guilty to manslaughter to periods of probation in the Intensive Support and Supervision Program.

Of the remaining four charged, two girls are slated to be tried soon in Superior Court by judge alone on charges of second-degree murder, while the other two are scheduled for a jury trial in May — one for second-degree murder and the other for manslaughter.

At her sentencing Tuesday, the girl who pleaded to manslaughter had admitted to punching, kicking and hitting the defenceless man and even stomping on him after someone in the group had plunged a knife in his heart, though she — and even the victim and the paramedics who treated him — didn’t know he’d been fatally stabbed.

According to the judge, she’s had a difficult childhood: apprehended from her mom at nine months old and raised by her grandmother, physically assaulted and sexually abused by her peers, with both incidents uploaded to social media, and she’s been diagnosed with PTSD, ADHD and marijuana abuse.

She’s also “normalized stealing,” Rose said, and was arrested multiple times last year for shoplifting.

More concerning is her “disturbing complete lack of acceptance of responsibility” in comments she made in a court report: she called Lee “a piece of s–t,” said “I don’t care” about what happened, and it was “not that serious” to warrant a plea to manslaughter. Yet, she wrote an apology letter to the court and told her probation officer she feels bad for what she did.

“(She) tells different versions about this event depending on who she is speaking to,” the judge concluded. “Her acceptance of responsibility is nowhere near complete.”

So clearly, this girl needs help. Let’s hope this two-year intensive program works the miracles she — and the safety of the rest of us — so badly require.

mmandel@postmedia.com