Latest news with #YouthCriminalJusticeAct
Hamilton Spectator
a day ago
- Hamilton Spectator
‘There's always a risk': Social media posts following Pickering stabbing could court legal issues
From suspect photos to surveillance videos, public access to information doesn't always align with criminal justice legislation. A public safety alert sent out Thursday evening following a violent attack in Pickering that left a woman dead became quick fodder for social media content, with witnesses posting on-the-ground reports of suspect movements, video snippets from doorbell and surveillance cameras and, in one case, a photo of the alleged suspect that was reposted countless times. 'In this case something very shocking and heinous happened and people were very interested in knowing who this person was,' said Dr. Andrea Slane, a professor in the legal studies program at Ontario Tech University . The wealth of information online became a problem, however, when police announced the arrest of a 14-year-old suspect whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. 'The police know they can't publish that person's information, but the general public may not know they are just as captured by that regulation as the police or the media — no one is allowed to publish information identifying this young person,' Slane explained. 'Under the law we have a greater obligation to young offenders to give them that space to be recuperated into regular society.' She said people should be cautious when posting anything related to criminal offences, noting there 'could be ramifications.' 'When something like this happens, our impulse is to go to social media and blab,' she said. 'There could potentially be an offence connected to it, it would be similar to a contempt of court offence, but I do think that's pretty rare unless someone is persistent.' She noted that identifying a suspect protected by legislation is just one risk. Some posts, such as unverified suspect photos linking someone's image to a crime, have the potential to vilify an innocent individual. 'There's always a risk if people are speculating, you might have someone say, 'I saw this guy in the vicinity,' or someone out walking happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and there could be terrible consequences for that person,' Slane said. 'People really do need to keep that in mind and that is the reason police don't randomly publish people's names or photos until they have a pretty sure case.' Slane said she expects this incident gained even more attention online given the age of the suspect. 'It doesn't surprise me there's a whole lot of activity around this and I think the narrative really started to change as soon as police said they had quite a young person in custody for this crime. I think, at first, people thought there was this crazy person out wreaking havoc, and then when the age was released, it was an extra layer of, 'How could this be? How could someone so young do this?'' Slane said. 'We don't know the whole story, certainly, but there's going to be a lot of attention with such a dramatic unfolding of events, from the public warning going out, the shelter in place and the cancelling of public events, it all created this idea that there was a maniac on the loose.' While social media has compromised publication bans to some extent, Slane said they are still important to the system and believes social media companies should be responsible for monitoring posts that could threaten the identity of someone protected under a ban. 'As soon as the internet allowed people to post things, and especially post things anonymously, it became clear that publication bans were going to be difficult to make rock solid — they weren't going to be airtight anymore,' Slane said. 'We have seen that's true, but that's no reason to abandon them. I think they still work to a pretty great extent, but the companies that host the platforms should have to step up and take things down when they're alerted to an issue.' Durham Regional Police did not respond to a request for comment on the social media posts related to the Pickering incident. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Toronto Star
2 days ago
- Toronto Star
‘Somebody was stabbed and he's dead': Unheard testimony and video footage from the girl swarm case
'I put my arm up, the knife went in.' Everyone had waited for this, to hear what the 16-year-old boy would say on the witness stand. This wasn't the trial for the girl accused of stabbing and killing Kenneth Lee, but instead the preliminary hearing, a kind of dress rehearsal involving all eight of the girls and their lawyers a year earlier. This is where legal issues — including whether the girls should stand trial — got ironed out. The boy had never agreed to speak to police. So, his testimony, seven days into the hearing, was a discovery of what he knew and what he would say at trial. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW He would never be called to testify at the Superior Court of Justice at the only trial that would go ahead — not once the Crown prosecutors and defence lawyers learned what he had to say. The girls had been drinking and smoking weed that night and were not acting like themselves, he said, which could have hurt the Crown's case that the girl intentionally harmed Lee. And, the boy said — unhelpfully for her defence — the girl who was accused of stabbing Lee, had a knife that injured him during a play fight, after the swarming attack. 'Your daughter's been arrested for murder': How a mother learned about her teen's role in Kenneth Lee's killing That testimony has, until now, been under a publication ban. On Friday, Justice Philip Campbell found the girl prosecutors tried to pin Lee's stabbing on not-guilty of murder, saying there was reasonable doubt she fatally wounded him. The decision brings to a close the prosecution against eight teen girls, ages 13 to 16 at the time, who were part of the swarming attack. But with none of them guilty of murder, the question remains: Who stabbed Kenneth Lee? This story details never before publicized evidence — how the girls themselves initially blamed one amongst them for the stabbing; how one of their friends testified that he himself was accidentally stabbed; and how a police interview unfolded with the accused stabber, one that was never admitted at trial. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW None of the young people can be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Kenneth Lee was visiting the parkette with a friend when their paths crossed with the girls, who swarmed him and at least one of whom stabbed him. Toronto Police Service In May 2024, the teen boy, under oath, said he'd known the girls he was hanging out with that night for a couple of months. He identified himself in video surveillance footage with them throughout the night of Dec. 17 and early morning hours of Dec. 18, 2022, following Lee's death. First, he was captured on the Yorkdale station subway platform where he and several girls could be seen chasing each other, playfully, up and down the tunnel. He was asked to identify what two of the girls could be seen holding: 'A knife,' he said. The court heard earlier this month, when one of the girls pleaded guilty to manslaughter, that she threw that knife onto the subway tracks 'because she didn't want anything dangerous to happen.' That fact was entered as part of an agreed statement that the Crown said they could neither prove nor disprove. Following the attack on Lee, video footage shown at the preliminary hearing showed the group of teens continued to loiter downtown, in an office lobby on Bay Street and outside, taking videos of themselves laughing and dancing. The girl accused of stabbing Lee, in one video, mimics stomping motions towards the cellphone camera, with what looks to be red blood stains visible on her grey sweatpants. Video surveillance footage of the attack on Lee shows the girl jumping with both feet and appearing to stomp on Lee as he is backed into a concrete planter in the parkette. Just over an hour after the attack on Lee, shortly after 1 a.m., the teens returned to Union Station where some of them began play fighting outside, the boy recounted when asked to review surveillance footage of the moment in court. It was hard to see exactly what happens from the video angle, but at one point the boy can be seen in the video bent over as the girls gather around him. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW A plan drawing of the parkette where Kenneth Lee was fatally stabbed and the surrounding area that was entered as an exhibit in court. Court exhibit The boy told the court that he was accidentally stabbed by the girl who would later be on trial for stabbing Lee — 'Wrong movements at the wrong time,' he told the court. A knife sliced through his right forearm, he said. The girls helped him get inside the station, video shows, where they got the attention of security guards. One of the girls called 911, the lead police detective in the case testified at the preliminary hearing, and said their friend had been stabbed. The girls would follow their friend to SickKids Hospital, where he was treated. The boy snapped a picture of his bloodied wrist, appearing stitched up, and sent it to his friends — later seized as evidence from the girls' cellphones. The messages were 'going crazy' in the group chat about how the boy had been injured, one of the girls' friends, who was not involved in the swarming, later testified at trial. The boy agreed, when asked by the girl's defence lawyer during cross-examination at the preliminary hearing, that the girl who stabbed him seemed drunk and was acting out of character that night. He was asked if it was possible he was cut with scissors and not a knife. The girl accused of stabbing Lee's had two pairs of nail scissors on her when she was arrested. None of the girls had a knife. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The boy testified he had also been smoking weed and drinking that night, affecting his memory. 'Maybe,' he answered. The girl accused of fatally stabbing Kenneth Lee was arrested with two small pairs of nail scissors. Court exhibit All eight girls were corralled in the lobby of SickKids Hospital when officers began to arrive through the revolving doors to investigate them. It was almost 3 a.m. and at first the officers didn't tell the girls they were being detained as they watched them from a distance, their body-worn cameras turned on. The girls didn't seem immediately bothered by the cops' presence. They didn't realize yet what was happening as they continued talking to each other and using their phones. The body-worn footage was played as part of a hearing about the admissibility of evidence at trial, but not at the trial itself. It wasn't until one of the girls asked an officer if she could talk to someone in the hospital lobby when the girls began to realize something was wrong. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'None of you are going to be leaving anytime soon,' the officer said. 'We can't leave?' one of them asked. There is an ongoing investigation about an incident at York and University, an officer replied. 'Somebody was stabbed and he's dead.' Crime scene photos show where Toronto Police marked blood from Kenneth Lee in the parkette where he was fatally stabbed. Court exhibit 'He's not dead,' one of the girls responded, possibly referring to their injured friend, as several of the girls approached where the officers had gathered. The girls denied being at York University — 'That was not us' — misunderstanding that the cop was referring to the downtown intersection, near Union Station. 'None of you are leaving until we sort things out,' an officer said. Is it a 'boy' or a 'girl' who's dead? one asked. It's a male adult, an officer told them. As they debated the location the officer described, one of the older girls clued in: 'I didn't kill nobody.' 'Yo, it was f—ing this b—h right here,' another said, gesturing to one of the girls seated behind her. The girls were talking over each other. 'Nobody killed nobody are you crazy?' a girl fired back at the girl who levelled the accusation. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW How do you know her? an officer asked. Another girl chimed in to say she heard from another girl that the girl behind them did it. Officers then moved toward that girl. 'You're being arrested for homicide,' one said, as she was handcuffed. The girl the Crown would eventually accuse of stabbing Lee was seated next to her, jacket hood up over her face. She was not speaking. In his decision, the judge found he could not exclude the possibility that the girl being accused in the SickKids lobby was responsible for the fatal stab wound. That girl, he wrote, can be seen on video with 'something that is shiny and shaped like a blade' protruding from her hand as she runs towards Lee during the final wave of the attack. At the same time, he wrote he could not conclude she was holding a knife. 'Is it a Chinese man?' one of the girls asked, still confused about why they were being investigated. 'It's a very serious matter,' one of the officers said. Officers searched the pockets of the girl being arrested, finding them full of candy and gum. 'I'm gonna read you your rights in the car, OK?' She was the first to be arrested. The 14-year-old is brought into a small, windowless interview room wearing an orange police-issued jumpsuit, her pink hoodie visible underneath. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The police detective followed behind her and sat across from her at a small white table that looked bolted to the floor. There's no lawyer, no parent present — the reason why this video footage, also discussed at the hearing about evidence admissibility, is never entered at her trial. 'My job here is to find out exactly what happened,' the officer told the girl, saying some of the other girls were choosing to tell police exactly what they did to Lee. 'Do I have to answer?' the girl asked. He told her she didn't. Gta A secret confession, chartered flights and strip searches: Behind the scenes of the girls-swarming saga after the killing of Kenneth Lee Here are some of the details that can now be reported for the first time. He led her through questions of where she was that night. She complained of losing her voice from talking too much. He asked why she wasn't making eye contact. 'I can't look at people when I talk to them . . . It makes me uncomfortable,' she said. Eventually the detective turned his laptop around to play the surveillance video from the parkette for her. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The girl leaned forward, tucking her chin into her hoodie as she watched. She pointed herself out in the video. 'Do you want to just tell me what happened?' the detective asked. 'I want to see what happened,' she responded. She couldn't remember, she said, telling the officer she hadn't been sober. 'I remember, but just don't remember,' she said. The detective continued playing the video from the parkette. 'He dies after this, from what happened to him,' the detective said. 'He suffered stab wounds . . . Did you stab him?' There is a long silence. She doesn't answer.
Calgary Herald
2 days ago
- Calgary Herald
Five youths charged after deploying bear spray at bus near Chinook station
Article content Five youths have been charged after bear spray was deployed near a transit bus by Chinook Station. Article content Article content According to a news release, police allege two groups of youths became involved in an altercation at a bus stop near Third Street and 61 Avenue S.W., near the Chinook CTrain station, on Friday, May 23 at 3:40 p.m. Article content As one group attempted to board a bus, members of the group allegedly sprayed bear spray near the open door, affecting the victims, the bus driver and uninvolved passengers on the bus. The group then fled the scene. Article content Article content The suspects were located and arrested within minutes by members of the Calgary Police Service (CPS) Community Engagement Response Team (CERT) and Calgary Transit Public Safety. Article content Article content Three girls aged 14, 15 and 16 and two boys aged 14 and 16 have been charged with four counts each of assault with a weapon. Article content Two girls aged 15 and 16 and one boy aged 14 are scheduled to appear in court on Friday, June 20. Article content The 14-year-old girl has also been charged with failure to comply with a release order. She is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday, June 26, 2025. The 16-year-old boy has also been charged with two counts of carrying a concealed weapon, one count of an imitation weapon for a dangerous purpose and one count of failure to comply with a release order. He was scheduled to appear in court on Friday, May 30. Article content None of the youths can be named under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Article content Article content 'Safety on public transit and in public spaces is a top priority for the Calgary Police Service and our Safer Calgary partners,' said Acting Staff Sgt. Derek Klassen. 'As part of Operation Safer Calgary, CERT members have been strategically deployed to these areas to ensure public safety. This proactive deployment allowed for seamless collaboration with our partners at Transit Public Safety and the timely arrest of these suspects. Violence on transit and in public spaces will not be tolerated in our city. We remain committed to holding those who choose to commit these acts of violence accountable for their actions as we work to make Calgary a safer place for everyone.'
CTV News
2 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Two teens facing weapons charges following incident in Norwich
An Ontario Provincial Police cruiser conducts a traffic stop in this file image. (Supplied/Ontario Provincial Police) A weapons complaint has resulted in charges for a 17-year-old youth in Norwich. OPP say that a call on Friday afternoon around 5:30 they received a call about a weapons complaint on Stover Street. An investigation resulted in the conclusion that a projectile was discharged from a vehicle and struck a pedestrian, resulting in minor injuries. The vehicle fled the scene. The vehicle was shortly located by officers, and the youth was charged with assault with a weapon, as well as possession of a weapon for dangerous purpose. A second youth, also 17 years old, was charged with assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for dangerous purpose, and dangerous operation. Their identities are protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Schoolgirl, 12, murdered family including brother, 8, with 'werewolf' boyfriend
A schoolgirl who was only 12-years-old when she murdered her entire family including her eight-year-old brother is now free and has a new identity. We take a look at what happened that fateful day... It was a dull, drizzly day in April 2006 when officers stumbled upon the bodies of Marc Richardson, 42, his wife Debra, 48, and their 8-year-old son Jacob in the quiet town of Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada. Jacob's young friend had arrived for a playdate only to discover the bodies, rushing to tell his mother, who then notified police. Marc had 24 stab wounds, Debra had 12 stab wounds and their eight-year-old son had a slit throat and stab wounds to his head and torso. That day, Police also discovered the family's 12-year-old daughter, Jasmine, was missing, raising fears she too might have been a victim of a horrific crime. But the next day, Jasmine was found in Leader, Saskatchewan, 80 miles away from the crime scene. She was found with her 23-year-old boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke, and in a shocking turn of events, both were arrested and charged with the murders. Investigators had uncovered a stick figure drawing depicting her family being murdered inside Jasmine's locker at school. The family had been brutally murdered in their home by their own daughter, Jasmine Richardson and her older boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke. As the investigation unfolded, disturbing details were discovered about the couple's relationship as Jasmine's friends revealed her parents had grounded her for dating Steinke due to the big age gap. But it wasn't just the age difference that was worrying. Steinke was obsessed with the supernatural, even claiming to be a 300-year-old werewolf who wore a vial of blood around his neck and frequented a vampire website. Jasmine had a profile on the same site, leading to speculation that they had met online, but an acquaintance later confirmed that they had met locally in person. Days before the murders, Steinke and his friends watched the film "Natural Born Killers," a violent tale of a couple on a killing spree. Steinke expressed admiration for the film, suggesting that he and Jasmine should carry out their plans in a similar fashion. Later, Steinke's friend Kacy Lancaster, 19, was charged with being an accessory for driving them away in her pickup truck later in the day and for disposing of evidence. During his trial in November 2008, it came out that Steinke had admitted to the murders in conversations with undercover officers. He was found guilty and sentenced to three life sentences and will be eligible for parole after 25 years. But Jasmine's case took a different turn due to her age. Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, she could not be sentenced as an adult or receive a sentence longer than 10 years for crimes committed before the age of 14. In July 2007, at the age of 13, she was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison. During her incarceration, Jasmine showed signs of remorse and underwent rehabilitation and began attending classes at Mount Royal University in Calgary in 2011. By October 2012, reports suggested her rehabilitation was progressing well, with experts recognising her genuine remorse. In May 2016, after completing her sentence, she was freed. At the time of her sentencing, Jasmine was the youngest person in Canada to be convicted of multiple murders. The now 31-year-old is living under a new identity in a secret location.
