Boy 'willing' participant to having feet zip-tied, co-accused says in video shown at Ontario murder trial

During often tense cross-examination, Becky Hamber shared more details on what she expected from the boys she and her wife were trying to adopt, and what consequences they faced if they didn’t comply. 

Hamber said she’d require the boys to stand in their rooms for set periods of time and if they fidgeted, stretched or talked, they’d be made to stand longer. 

In a transcript of a recorded conversation between Hamber and L.L., the older boy, in 2021, a year before he died, Hamber asks him why he’d stand in his room “all day long.” 

“Because I’m saying I’m hungry,” the boy responds. 

Hamber also confirmed in court that along with a wetsuit, mittens and sometimes a hockey helmet, she’d make L.L. wear a jock strap “cup” and a bathing suit to stop what she described as excessive masturbation. 

But in the recorded conversation from 2021, L.L. told her he was holding his groin area because he was in pain due to having to go to the washroom.

The Crown has told the court that the boys were rarely let out of their locked bedrooms to go to the bathroom, which is why they’d have accidents. Hamber has said they peed themselves on purpose to get what they wanted, faster. In L.L.’s case, he was often trying to gain their attention to get food, she said. 

Frew also alleged the women physically assaulted the boys. 

In text messages from 2022, Hamber told Cooney she “sucker punched” J.L. in the throat. In another, Cooney said she “pinned” L.L. 

Hamber responded, “you strangled him and threw him down.” 

In her testimony, she said she and Cooney never did any of these things to the boys. 

Frew also asked Hamber why J.L.’s feet were zip-tied when they were cut and blistered. Hamber said it wasn’t intended to be malicious or a punishment, and “it came out of pure love, similar to a hockey helmet being used,” referring to how the boys were put in helmets to stop them from injuring themselves. 

Proceedings in the Ontario Superior Court trial, which began in mid-September in Milton, are set to resume at 9 a.m. ET and wrap up, with closing arguments expected in March.

Hamber ends proceedings today on that line of questioning.

They’re set to resume tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET.

Both the Crown and defence have said they’ll have enough time to wrap up Hamber’s testimony.

Frew switches topics to ask Hamber about how cold L.L.’s basement bedroom was. 

The Crown notes Cooney’s father, who also slept in the basement, had a fireplace in his room for extra warmth, and would often heat up his winter coat in the dryer to wear to bed. 

Hamber agrees. 

But L.L., who was “skin and bones” by the fall of 2022, slept on a daycare cot without any bedding or pillow, and wearing only a wetsuit, Frew says.

Hamber says their decision to take away his blanket was only temporary, and he was often given socks to wear at night and extra layers of clothing, as well as a space heater set up outside his room. 

“You weren’t concerned he was cold down there given the environment he was living in?” Frew asks her. 

“Yes, I was concerned and that’s why he had layers, a heater and things like that,” responds Hamber. 

During an interview, police asked Hamber if they used zip ties on J.L.’s body. Frew is reading from a transcript of this interaction after L.L. died.  

“Not in our home,” Hamber told the detective.

In court, she says she doesn’t think zip-tying shoes or wetsuit sleeves are literally using them on his body, although she doesn’t remember the interview. 

“Another interpretation is you’re lying to the officer because you don’t want to admit using zip ties on this child,” says Frew.

Hamber says she wasn’t lying. 

Now the Crown is pointing out discrepancies between what Hamber has told the court and what she says in the video. 

For example, Hamber is recorded as saying he got blisters on his feet playing soccer. She testified it was from climbing a play structure at a park. 

She says in the video the cuts barely broke his skin. In court, she says she discovered deep cuts. 

In both examples, Hamber says what she recalled in court today is true. 

Other details the Crown says don’t match up include whether or not Cooney was home, how many other ways Hamber tried to stop J.L. from picking at his blisters before using the zip ties, and if she was interviewed by police about the injuries. 

Hamber reiterates J.L. was a willing participant and he likely misremembered details when talking to police. 

“Of course I absolutely regret allowing it to happen,” she says. “But the intention behind it was not malicious, not a punishment … it came out of pure love, similar to a hockey helmet being used.” 

The couple told the court they’d put hockey helmets on the boys’ heads to stop them from injuring themselves. 

In the video, Hamber says J.L. had picked blisters four or five nights in a row and it was a “compulsion.” 

She says J.L. then suggested to Cooney to zip-tie his shoes on his feet so he couldn’t pick them. 

“In our exhaustion and desperation for [J.L.] to leave his feet alone, this seemed like a good idea,” says Hamber. 

She says it was a “dumb dumb moment” as parents but J.L. was a “willing” participant. 

Later, Hamber says, she discovered he’d pulled the zip ties tighter and partially broke the skin on the tops of his feet. 

She also describes J.L. as being “psychologically fragile” and says he tended to pick at caulking in the bathroom, which caused a flood in the basement. 

“Any evidence of the scars from the detectives and doctors, I can definitely understand how that looks horrendous,” she says. 

But, she says, J.L. caused the scars because he picked the cuts “over and over.” 

The court is now watching a 30-minute video Hamber recorded in 2023, while out on bail for charges related to J.L. but before she was charged with first-degree murder of L.L.

In the video, she says she’s recording it because her health is deteriorating and she may not live through a trial. She wants the video to be used as a kind of affidavit in the event of her death. 

Hamber begins describing her version of how J.L. sustained the injuries to his feet.

Whether Hamber and Cooney used zip ties on the boys’ feet is important because they are charged with assaulting J.L. with a weapon — zip ties. They’ve both pleaded not guilty to that as well.

When J.L. was removed from their care after L.L. died in late 2022, it was discovered his feet had sustained visible injuries, the court has heard.

J.L. testified in November that the injuries were from the times Cooney and Hamber zip-tied his feet into a wetsuit, and the restraints cut his feet. 

Hamber previously told the court the marks were from one time earlier that year when they’d zip-tied his shoes onto his feet, at his request. He’d then tightened the zip ties on his own, causing his feet to bleed. 

Hamber tells Frew the reason the injuries were still visible months later is because he picked at his scabs.  

As court resumes, Frew asks Hamber if she used zip ties on the children’s feet more than one time. 

“I don’t remember,” she says.

Frew pulls up a few examples of the women texting about zip-tying them. 

Hamber tells Frew they wouldn’t have been put directly on their feet, but used to bound the fabric around their feet. 

All four ends of the wetsuit would be zip-tied overnight, the Crown says. 

Hamber says again that she doesn’t remember. 

But in another text, Cooney tells her one of the boys had “blue bruise marks” across his toes. 

Hamber responds, “From zip ties probably.” 

Frew says that appears to show they did use zip ties around the boys’ feet. 

Hamber responds, “I don’t know. Anything’s possible.”