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A lesbian Canadian couple tortured a 12-year-old boy until he shrunk and died as a family doctor and social worker failed to save him from the horror, a court heard.
The child, only identified as LL, had stopped growing and even got shorter than he was a year before he died on December 21, 2022, while in the care of Brandy Cooney and Becky Hamber.
He was found soaking wet, unresponsive and emaciated in the basement of the couple's home before being rushed to the hospital where he later died.
LL and his brother, identified as JL, started living with the couple in their Ontario home in 2017 after being moved from a foster home in Ottawa.
They had planned on adopting the Indigenous brothers, who were still wards of the Children's Aid Society (CAS) at the time of LL's death, but the adoption was never finalized, CBC reported.
The women's trial kicked off last month, but on Monday and Tuesday Dr Graeme (Stephen) Duncan, the family's physician, described the eerie details of LL's deteriorating health.
During a December 13, 2022, appointment - just days before LL took his final breath - Duncan said the boy was 'normal' despite losing 10lbs in one year and weighing less than he did at the age of six.
Meanwhile, Stefanie Peachey, a social worker assigned to watch over the boys, told the court she recorded 'yellow flags' after saying she saw the surviving brother zip-tied into his pajamas, CBC stated.
Peachey, who worked with the brother and the couple for about a year, said her sessions mainly focused on the boy's identity and 'who they wanted to be'.
Still, she worried about 'the narrative around who [the boys] were...focused around negative experiences,' even if 'they were good or bad,' the court heard.
When asked if she saw behaviors, such as tantrums, Peachy said she never witnessed that during sessions, despite the women saying they dealt with that at home.
'I never experienced any of those behaviors in session or in the waiting room,' Peachy replied, adding that she thought of the brothers as polite.
Peachy further revealed that Hamber and Cooney requested she not ask the boys 'direct questions' and suggested she withhold sessions from them as a form of punishment if they lied.
In the summer of 2020, the couple told Peachy they did not think the sessions were helping, leading her to share her files with a new provider.
In the files, Peachy stated she saw JL zip-tied into his clothing, something she only referred to as 'yellow flags'.
The little boy told her the restraints were put on him so he didn't urinate on things when he got upset - an issue she said she discussed with Hamber and Cooney.
That made Peachey feel 'uncomfortable' and refer to the alleged tactic as not 'a good parenting strategy' - but still, she did not find it concerning enough to report what the boy said.
'I thought it was something that just needed to be monitored,' Peachy told the court.
At the same time, Dr Duncan said he witnessed the boy's dramatic weight loss and growth stunt for himself, but didn't think too much of it.
'He was quite interactive and normal in terms of responding to me verbally, politely,' Duncan told the court. 'But the physical exam was remarkable mostly because of his weight loss.'
The doctor, who practices in Halton, said the women told him LL had an eating disorder and was throwing up daily.
Because of that, Duncan said he sent a referral to an eating disorder clinic and was waiting for a response, CBC reported.
But, according to Monte McGregor, Hamber's attorney, Duncan should have known the pre-teen 'was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off' who could have 'dropped' any moment due to 'a cardiac occurrence that could've led to his death'.
A pathologist previously told the court he could not yet determine LL's cause of death, but could not rule out cardiac arrest or hypothermia linked to severe malnourishment.
According to McGregor, LL actually shrunk compared to an appointment he had with Dr Duncan a year prior.
Duncan confessed he did not examine the boy with his clothes off, take his blood pressure while standing up or lying down, and did not ask him about his eating habits during his final checkup.
All of those steps are recommended by the Canadian Pediatric Society to determine if a patient is suffering from malnutrition.
Duncan, who was LL and JL's doctor from 2018 to 2022, was aware of several health providers, including psychiatrists, mental health providers and pediatricians, who had accessed and treated the boy.
He also knew of their findings and recommendations, including medication prescriptions for him.
In a shocking letter from 2019 to the Halton CAS's director that was co-signed by Duncan and his staff, medical professionals expressed their concerns about the adoption of the brothers by Hamber and Cooney.
The letter, which was read aloud in court, stated that the couple's parenting style and 'safety containment was more abusive than therapeutic,' as they forced the boys to sleep in tents, covered their rooms in tarps and zip-tied them to their clothing.
The women also had explosive personalities that led to uncontrolled emotions, the letter stated.
'Despite multiple efforts, [Cooney and Hamber] were unwilling to work on goals to support the children at home, in the community and in school,' the message added.
Cooney and Hamber have both pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of the child, as well as confinement, assault with a weapon - mainly zip ties - and failing to provide the necessities of life to the deceased boy's younger brother, per the outlet.
Their trial is expected to continue into December.
When contacted by the Daily Mail for comment, Cooney's lawyer Kim Edward said: 'Not at this critical time.'
The Daily Mail also contacted Hamber's lawyer for comment.