'I miss my baby boy': victim impact statements read at Robert Belbin sentencing hearing

The families of Seamus Secord and Robert Belbin were back in court Friday for Belbin’s sentencing hearing.

In October Belbin, 24, was found guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of 22-year-old Seamus Secord. The incident took place on Feb. 7, 2023, outside Secord's home on Mayor Avenue.

Nearly three years later, the sentencing hearing began on Friday at Supreme Court in St. John's, with two victim impact statements being delivered.

Cynthia Buchan, Secord's mother, told the courtroom there hasn’t been a single day without her thoughts occupied by the loss of her son and the lack of closure she feels.

Buchan described her son as a “kind, generous and magnanimous person,” who was loving to his friends and family. She said she and her family have been "suspended in uncertainty and unresolved trauma" for years, awaiting information about her son’s murder.

Without having received any of Secord’s personal belongings, she lamented not having the opportunity to know the man her son was in the years prior to his death.

Years of strain on family relationships, mental health, financial burden and public exposure has been life altering, said Buchan.

“It is a harm that has reshaped the very fabric of our lives," she said. "I miss my baby boy.”

Buchan said her family was evicted from their home after their landlord became aware of the circumstances surrounding her son’s murder, having to uproot her family.

“The house remains vacant,” Buchan said of the place she used to call home.

Now living a three hour's drive away from St. John’s, Buchan said attending trials create an even heavier burden — one she carried anyway. It took organizing child care, absorbing gas costs and countless hours of court-related travel.

She said the costs quickly “affected our ability to meet basic needs.”

While the jury deliberated for over two days in October, Buchan said she made a point to be in town in anticipation of a verdict at a moment’s notice.

“By the end of the long trial and days and days of deliberations, my finances had been completely drained,” she said.

Buchan said she was at home alone when she received the verdict via text and reading media reports commenting on her absence that day stung.

“I was so very ashamed. I really wanted to be there.”

Buchan said the last three years have felt like ongoing punishment, “years of emotional imprisonment layered with public exposure that showed no regard for the devastation caused.”

Offering thanks to the woman who held her son as he lay dying on a cold, cement floor, Buchan called witness Brittany Cochrane a hero.

In Cochrane’s statement, read by Crown attorney Paul Thistle, she described herself as “simply a woman driving home from work, sitting in five o'clock traffic.”

She said her life was forever changed when she decided to get out of her car to be by Secord’s side. Cochrane said she now deals with flashbacks and anxiety over the trauma.

In her statement, Cochrane said she witnessed two young lives forever altered that day — one taken from his family far too soon and the other lost to his family as a result.

After the emotional delivery of victim impact statements, the Crown and defence each made their arguments for sentencing and parole eligibility for Belbin.

The Crown argued Belbin should face 12 years in prison. The defence is asking for 10 years.

Belbin also addressed the courtroom, where he apologized to Secord’s family and said that he regrets every decision he made the day he killed Secord.

The sentencing decision date is set for February 27.

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