WARNING: This article details allegations of child abuse.
In messages to wife Becky, Hamber referred to herself as “Officer Hamber” and said one of the boys in her and Brandi Cooney's care was “in the Hamber Cooney jail.”
These texts from November 14, 2021 were one of many shown on A woman's first-degree murder trial was held Tuesday in a Milton, Ont., court.
This was at least the second time the women identified themselves as jailers of the two brothers they were trying to adopt, with Cooney in December 2020 referring to her father, who also lived with them and the brothers, as “Officer Cooney.”
CBC's coverage of the trial refers to the brothers as LL and JL because their identities are protected by a standard publication ban. LL was 12 years old when he died in the care of Humber and Cooney on December 21, 2022. His younger brother JL is now 13 years old.
The Burlington, Ont., women pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in LL's death at a trial that began in mid-September in Ontario Superior Court. They filed the same complaint involving charges of confinement, assault with a weapon (bracelets) and failure to provide the necessaries of life to JL. The Crown alleges Humber and Cooney abused and neglected Indigenous children.
Crown attorney Monica McKenzie showed the court more audio recordings taken from the women's electronic devices and showed several sets of text messages.
Halton Regional Police Service Sgt. Julie Powers testified for the second day in a row. On Monday, the officer who led the investigation into Humber and Cooney said police were able to extract data from the couple's phones and IP addresses.announcement following their arrest in February 2024. Some of usThese are recordings the women made or saved from the CCTV camera system they used to keep an eye on the boys.
Court hears women discuss restricting boys' freedoms as a behavioral consequence
In the 80-minute recording, played by McKenzie, the women berated the older boy, L.L., for “peeing and pooping” himself. One of the women told the then 11-year-old boy that he had “decided” to do it in a misguided attempt to get what he wanted and was “still years away from having free access to a toilet and a home.”
They said he stood in his room all day and said they took his furniture because of “unsafe choices.”
The court was told that paramedics found L.L. unconscious, wet and lying on the ground floor of his bedroom, which was locked from the outside. Witnesses said he was so emaciated and malnourished that he looked as if he was six years old, even though he was twice his age. He died shortly afterwards in hospital.
The women's lawyers argue that the couple did their best to care for children with high needs and severe behavioral problems, with little help from the Children's Aid Society (CAS) and service providers.
It is said, for example, that women had to lock up boys to prevent them from running away.went away and put them in zip-up wetsuits to keep them from peeing around the house. The defense also argues that the boys are at risk of harming themselves or others.
The trial, presided over by Judge Clayton Conlan, heard testimony from witnesses including first responders, medical experts, teachers, therapists, doctors and J.L. himself. The trial is expected to last until at least mid-December.
In the recording, the women tell LL that he will have a good life if he listens to them.
In the 80-minute recording, one of the women told LL he was “worthy of love and happiness” but he needed to trust that the couple knew what was best for him.
They told LL that he had a traumatic upbringing in the foster care system, but that it was not his fault and they wanted him to rise above it. Otherwise, they said, he would never have his own family.
Most of the boys' responses on the recordings are unintelligible, as if they were far from the microphone.
In a 20-minute audio file dated December 28, 2020, the women can be heard berating J.L. he was then eight years old.
“You made our lives hell for several years,” said one of the women, claiming that he broke one of her fingers during the tantrum.
“I'm mad at you for breaking her finger, so what can I break yours?” – asks one of the women.
They say he told them that he wanted to die and questioned him about it.
“You don't want to try. Instead you just want to die. It's stupid,” one said.
“We love you no matter what,” but “My affection for you fluctuates,” one of the women said. “We don’t have to like you.”
Another chimed in: “Not at all.”
The recording ended with one of the women telling the boy that at night he should make himself comfortable “on a plank of wood” and say to himself: “I am safe. I am loved. I am Humber Cooney.”
During the trial it was revealed that the boys slept in bags on beds, sometimes tied to tents. The defense said this was done to prevent the boys from getting hurt and running away.
Women told boys they 'sacrificed' their bodies to previous adoptive family
In three audio recordings played in court, the women told LL and JL they had “sacrificed” their bodies to a previous foster family to get what they wanted.
in court it became known that L.L. and J.L. blamed their previous adoptive family frombus, which investigators later deemed unfounded.
In court, JL said the allegations were never true and that Humber and Cooney ordered him to repeat them.
In texts and recordings, the women mentioned facts that came to light during the trial, including boys eating mashed potatoes and peeing or pooping outside the toilet.
“I don’t give a damn about mashing your food until you’re 18,” Humber said in one recorded conversation with JL. “If you didn't like baby food, you wouldn't act like a baby.”
She also mentioned that he wears a diaper and said that he should be able to control himself and his body.
JL previously testified that he could hold his bladder and bowels, but sometimes women would not let him out of the room and he would have accidents.
McKenzie also showed a video in which Powers described Humber taking blueberries from LL while crying and accusing her of “denying breakfast,” repeatedly saying, “It's not fair” and “I'm hungry.”
In October The pediatrician showed that LL was severely malnourished a few days before his death. The central issue at trial was whether the couple fed him enough.
Women humiliated boys in text messages
In text messages shown in court, the women often insulted LL and JL
In a conversation with her father on July 26, 2020, Cooney said that LL had a nightmare about dying alone.
“Loser, whiner, cry baby, poor me, awww,” she wrote. “I was faking my liking for the asshole.”
In a text exchange on September 24, 2021, the women said LL developed a rash caused by not drying himself properly.
“If I were them, I would be disgusted with myself,” Humber wrote.
Mackenzie then showed a group selfie taken six days later, showing the couple posing with JL outside. The women are wearing orange T-shirts and holding a sign that reads, “Every Child Matters.”
The trial will resume on Wednesday.
If this report has affected you, you can seek mental health help through resources in your province or territory.
