When discipline becomes confused with punishment

Child's death 'work of the devil'

A 7-year-old girl becomes Toronto's 39th homicide of the year

Aug 04, 2008 09:45 AM

Joanna Smith
Staff Reporter

Beverley Walker wiped away tears as she spoke about the heartbreak her
long-time friend Bernice Sampson experienced yesterday after learning
her 7-year-old daughter had been killed.

"I'm sorry for Bernice," the 56-year-old woman said while sitting in a
coffee shop in the Queen St. W. and Lansdowne Ave. area with a group
of close friends.

"She's not going to make it. She's gone. She was having a hard time
already. She didn't want to give her up in the first place."

As she spoke, Walker spotted Sampson with a friend stumbling along the
sidewalk outside, clutching a school photograph of her chubby-faced
daughter Katelynn Sampson, who earlier in the morning had become
Toronto's 39th homicide victim of the year.

Walker ran outside to meet her and the grieving mother collapsed into
her arms.

About an hour earlier, Sampson had screamed and hurled herself at the
front door of a highrise apartment building at 105 West Lodge Ave.
where her daughter had been found dead. Her weeping friends had pulled
her into a car and tried to calm her.

Katelynn had been pronounced dead in a second-floor apartment shortly
after Toronto EMS responded to a 911 call made around 2:30 a.m.
regarding a young girl who had stopped breathing while choking on
food.

The paramedic realized quickly that the girl "had been dead for quite
some time" and that her body showed "obvious signs of trauma" that
contradicted the story, Toronto homicide Det. Sgt. Steve Ryan said at
a press conference at police headquarters yesterday.

"She clearly had not choked," Ryan said. "I can't get into specifics,
just that she was assaulted around her entire body."

Ryan, describing the scene, said, "It's the work of the devil. That's
what it is."

Police arrested Donna Irving, 29, who had called 911 and was alone in
the apartment with the victim at the time, and charged her with
second-degree murder. She is scheduled to appear in court today.


Irving was coherent as she was arrested and has no history of mental
illness, Ryan said. She had been granted sole custody of Katelynn in
January but Ryan could not confirm how or why.

He said Irving was living with her boyfriend – who Bernice Sampson
identified as her friend Warren Johnson – and their two biological
sons who were not harmed and are with their father. The father has
been co-operative with police and is not a suspect, Ryan said.

Irving has two other underage children who do not live with her, he
said.
[. . .]


Only flamingly incompetent and/or ignorant and/or
immature parents, cowards and perverts deliberately
cause children pain in the name of "discipline."

People who can't raise children without hurting them
should be closely monitored by child-care authorities
or lose custody of them altogether.

Assholes who are unable to control a child's behaviour
without violence -- something billions of people ARE
able to do -- have no business caring for children.

I say that not only as an advocate for children's
rights and welfare, but as a FATHER who managed
to raise three great kids without ever laying a
punitive hand on them.

I'm not Dr. Spock. If I can do it, so can you.

Unless, of course, you are one of those
above-mentioned incompetents, fools, immature parents,
cowards, perverts or assholes.



















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