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Horror story
Friday August 8 2008
 
Katelynn Sampson never stood a chance.
Details of the life of the seven-year-old Toronto girl, found murdered in an apartment last Sunday, have emerged this week and they are not pleasant.
Bernice Sampson, a drug addict apparently unable to manage her addiction, turned over custody of her daughter to family friend Donna Irving— the woman now charged with killing Katelynn.
Unbelievably, it appears that Irving was able to gain “full and final custody” of Katelynn this past January without the involvement of any child and family services agency and without a background check on Irving who had a trio of criminal convictions. A simple application to family court was enough to shuffle this young girl from one unhealthy environment to another.
Homicide Det. Sgt. Steve Ryan said it was “probably the worst thing I’ve seen in 20 years of policing” when describing the little girl’s body. Police say the nature and severity of Katelynn’s injuries resulted in a longer than expected autopsy and that some of her injuries were not “fresh”.
Through court records and other accounts it appears Katelynn’s life was a living hell.
 Her mother was a drug addict. Her father was a drug addict and out of the picture. She was sent to live with Irving who has had three criminal convictions since 1999— for assault with a weapon, possession of cocaine and communicating for the purpose of prostitution. Irving’s live-in boyfriend Warren Johnson was also charged with second degree murder in the case on Wednesday.
How could this happen in Ontario today? In some instances there are more checks and balances in place for people to adopt an animal than there were for Katelynn to be moved from one disaster-in-waiting to another.
Already rumblings of a inquest have surfaced but it would have to wait for a resolution to the criminal case in this matter— that will take years.
There appears to be a legal loophole that needs plugging immediately by our provincial politicians.
Before there is another Katelynn.