Mother to stand trial in death of girl

Toronto Star, MICHELLE SHEPHARD, STAFF REPORTER, Jan. 10, 2004.

A judge has ruled that Clara Dasilva must stand trial for the death of her 2-year-old daughter, who died of dehydration after police said she was left alone for hours in an apartment.

Dasilva sat expressionless in the courtroom yesterday as the judge committed her case to trial for manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death, following a preliminary hearing.

A publication ban prevents the reporting of the reasons for the judge's ruling. Dasilva said she did not want to comment as she left the Finch Ave. W. Ontario Court of Justice courthouse with her father.

Police said little Adrianna was left alone in Dasilva's apartment, near Victoria Park Ave. and Eglinton Ave. E., for up to 12 hours. When Dasilva, 22 at the time, returned to the Biggin Court apartment Sept. 9, 2002, she found her daughter dead, police said.

Antonio Dasilva, who has posted bail for his daughter to live with him until the trial, said at his granddaughter's funeral that Adrianna was his "best friend."

"She would take my hand and go around. She's gone. I did what I could," he said in her eulogy.

Dasilva had lived alone in the apartment, having broken up with her boyfriend Mark Yetman about a year earlier.

Yetman has said he continued to see Adrianna two or three times a week.

When police first arrested Dasilva she was charged with criminal negligence causing death, but a later charge of manslaughter was added.

At the time, police wouldn't comment on the additional charge, except to say that it was laid following a "continuing investigation."

Woman convicted of killing 3 kids after custody battle

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, USA, August 26, 2008

HELSINKI, Finland - A court in Finland has convicted a woman of murdering her three young children and has given her a life sentence.

The Espoo District Court says Thai-born Yu-Hsiu Fu was found guilty of strangling her 8-year-old twin daughters and 1-year-old son in her home.

She tried to kill herself afterward.

The verdict on Tuesday says the 41-year-old woman was found to be of sound mind at the time of the murders.

Court papers show the murders were preceded by a bitter custody battle with her Finnish husband who was living separately from her at the time of the murders.

A life sentence in Finland mean convicts usually serve at least 11 years in prison.

Ontario woman convicted of son's starvation death granted full parole

Canadian Press
Wednesday, May. 22, 2002

KINGSTON, Ont. (CP) -- An Ontario woman who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in one of Canada's stiffest penalties for child abuse will be released on full parole after serving less than half her term.

Lorelei Turner, 38, and her husband Steven were convicted of manslaughter in July 1995 for beating and starving their three-year-old son John to death in a case that horrified Canadians who followed the trial.

But on Wednesday, a panel of the National Parole Board in this eastern Ontario city ruled Turner will be released but placed on probation until July 2011.

Until then, she must remain within 25 kilometres of her residence, is not allowed unsupervised contact with anyone under 16, and must continue to receive counselling.

"The board would have looked at the risk and obviously found a low risk to reoffend," Carol Sparling of the National Parole Board said Wednesday.