Woman in swarming demise of Kenneth Lee needs probation

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She remains to be frighteningly clueless.

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Even now, even after watching and rewatching the horrific video of her half within the mindless swarming assault on Kenneth Lee, the place she’s enthusiastically hitting, punching and stomping on the weak man — virtually doing every part however really delivering the deadly knife wound — the pig-tailed teen nonetheless has no regret.

Crown legal professional Sarah De Filippis says it’s surprising how the lady, who was one of many “ringleaders” who pleaded responsible to manslaughter, nonetheless minimizes her position to an virtually “ludicrous diploma” — and that’s placing it kindly.

“She thought Mr. Lee was a chunk of s—,” the prosecutor stated the now 16-year-old reported in her psychological evaluation. “She minimizes her involvement (saying) ‘I’ve no guilt. I didn’t do something critical. I had nothing to do with what precipitated his demise.”

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How chilly and callous can she be?

Lee, 59, was viciously knifed to demise after midnight on Dec. 18, 2022, when the homeless man was attacked by a swarm of ladies in a parkette close to College Ave. and Entrance St.

The eight teenagers, who ranged in age from 13 to 16 and might’t be recognized below the Youth Legal Justice Act, have been initially charged with second-degree homicide. 4 of the women have pleaded responsible — three to manslaughter and one to assault inflicting bodily hurt and assault with a weapon. The opposite 4 have pleaded not responsible and are going to trial subsequent yr.

Again in custody after being charged with new offences, this lady’s sentencing listening to Thursday first heard emotional sufferer affect statements from Lee’s household. Then the prosecutor performed the safety footage of the assault for Justice David Rose, focussing on her feral actions through the three-and-a-half-minute swarming by the terrifying pack.

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Or because the shelter employee who in the end intervened would later describe it: “A bunch of wolves on high of a chunk of meat.”

The lady, 14 on the time, had earlier that evening joined up with the marauding teenagers creating mayhem on the subway and he or she’d hit a lady exterior the TTC’s St. Andrews subway station. She later not directly “instigated” the swarming, De Filippis stated, when she stole a bottle of booze from a homeless girl within the parkette in what was “a part of a sample of unprovoked violence.”

When Lee stepped in to guard his pal, the offended mob descended on him.

It’s troublesome to look at as these women present no mercy to the slight man — a beloved son, brother and uncle who was engaged on his private points and hoping to return residence for Christmas along with his new purpose of “serving to folks.”

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This teen wasn’t the primary to pounce on Lee, however she joined in shortly, De Filippis stated, regularly hitting him together with her white buying bag of ice — even when he quickly managed to get away and flee to the street.

When the women converged on him from all angles and cornered him beside a low walled concrete planter, she could be seen pulling Lee right down to the pavement and kneeing him repeatedly. “And even after he’s on the bottom and adults are breaking it off, she’s nonetheless stomping on his head,” De Filippis stated.

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“She was probably the most violent within the group. She was devoted to this assault and he or she was relentless, even to the final minutes when he was crumpled on the bottom.”

Whereas the utmost youth sentence is three years, with credit score for pre-sentence custody, prosecutors are asking for her to serve 20 months in an open custody facility. And that may be lowered nonetheless additional after her lawyer Anne Marie Morphew plans to argue the teenager, like a few of her co-accused, was pressured to bear bare strip searches whereas in custody.

Regardless of what her lawyer could request when the listening to continues Friday, De Filippis insisted probation shouldn’t be an applicable different to custody to carry her accountable.

Not that the Crown isn’t sympathetic to this lady’s tough life: apprehended at beginning by baby safety, she was ultimately taken in by her grandmother who loves her “ferociously” however the teen has had few helps as she struggles with a studying incapacity and a propensity to shoplift.

“She appears to be slipping by way of the cracks all the best way alongside,” the choose famous.

And that’s tragic — nevertheless it nonetheless doesn’t clarify away what she did to that poor, defenceless man.

mmandel@postmedia.com

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