Father, Stepmother Guilty of Second-Degree Murder in 7-Year-Old's Beating Death
By Angela Pacienza for The Canadian Press
Originally published by The Canadian Press, April 18, 2002
TORONTO (CP) — The parents of a seven-year-old boy relentlessly beaten in one of the worst cases of child abuse in Canadian legal history were convicted Thursday of second-degree murder and now face life in prison for months of thrashings they inflicted on the child that finally killed him.
After a three-month trial that horrified the city, Tony and Marcia Dooley were found guilty by the four-man, eight-woman jury after three days of deliberations.
It was a verdict that came as a relief to both authorities and every-day Torontonians, who were seemingly haunted by the photos of the sad-faced, doe-eyed boy that stared at them almost daily from the city's newspapers. Some attended the trial wearing lapel pins adorned with Randal's picture.
"This verdict is sending a very, very strong, strong message to people who want to beat their children: You can no longer do that in our society," Crown attorney Rita Zaied said outside court.
"You take a child and you beat a child over several months, it's no longer going to be considered manslaughter. It may very well be considered that you intentionally killed your child."
Months of abuse left little Randal incontinent and unable to keep down food before his death in September 1998, court was told during a trial that heard from 61 witnesses and featured 92 pieces of evidence, including the blue bunk-beds where the boy's emaciated body was found.
Along with a tapestry of scars and bruises, a post-mortem on Randal's emaciated, 40-pound body discovered 13 broken ribs, a lacerated liver and a tooth in his stomach.
Tony and Marcia Dooley, who both sat stone-faced when the verdict was read, face an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years. Superior Court Justice Eugene Ewaschuk can increase the length of time each of them must stay in jail before being considered for parole when the pair are officially sentenced May 3.
As they waited for the jury to return with a sentencing recommendation, Tony Dooley, 36, played with his hair and Marcia Dooley, 32, rocked back and forth in her seat nervously.
The Crown asked that victim impact statements be read from Randal's brother Tego, 11, his birth mother Racquel Burth, 26, Tony's sister Beatrice Dooley, and his Grade 1 teacher, Gloria Robson, who was the first to alert authorities to the abuse of the boy, before sentencing.
Many people in the packed courtroom wept openly and cheered when the jury, who had been sequestered since starting deliberations late Tuesday, read the guilty verdict.
A dozen people waiting outside the courtroom because there wasn't enough room inside yelped and cheered 'Justice!' when told of the verdict.
"No one can forget this boy," said 18-year-old Luna Ilgic, who attended court almost daily in support of Randal although she never knew him.
"He led a torturous life. It's not like any other case."
Others blamed a children's aid system that doesn't adequately protect kids.
"There was nobody for Randal. The sytem failed the boy," said Enid Campbell, another supporter who attended the trial daily since it began Jan. 16. "The jury has now picked up the pieces."
Medical experts said Randal—whose frail, rigoured body was found in his brother's bunk bed on Sept. 25, 1998—died of brain injuries that were likely caused by being shaken repeatedly.
The trial heard from countless witnesses—police and emergency crews, family members, school authorities and medical experts among them.
Jurors wept as they stared at life-sized autopsy photos and winced when witnesses described horrifying details about the beatings inflicted on Randal, a quiet boy who came to Canada a year earlier from his home in Jamaica to live with his father and new stepmother with hopes of a better life.
Even the judge described "poor, pitiful" Randal as possibly being "be the worst victim of child abuse in Canadian penal history" during his charge to the jury.
"Millions of people have been devasted by the death of this beautiful child," a weepy Robson, the Grade 1 teacher who first alerted authorities about the boy's suffering, said after the verdict.
"I feel very saddened for those of you who did not know him because what sustains me and heals my wounds are my memories of beautiful Randal."
Robson discovered marks on the boy's arms and back in April 1998. But Toronto Children's Aid officials refused to get involved in what they considered a police matter.
But the police officers who investigated the allegations of abuse believed Marcia Dooley's story that Randal sustained whip marks on his arms and back as a result of a game played with other children.
The case sparked criticism from child advocates who said government and police don't do enough to protect children from assaults by their parents, relatives and other adults.
"Horrific child abuse like this can never be truly eliminated," said Kim Snow, a Ryerson University professor and expert on child abuse.
But cases like Randal's could be reduced if "society took child abuse seriously," Snow said. "The system failed this boy."
Snow said "far more education for the general public, . . . teachers and doctors on the signs of child abuse is needed."
Cheryl Milne, a lawyer with the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law in Toronto, said the case highlights a problem with child abuse prevention programs in Canada: the law makes reporting assaults a moral decision rather than a legal one.
"If people don't report child abuse it can end in a tragedy such as this," she said. "There were people who knew and didn't report anything."
During closing arguments last week, Tony Dooley's lawyer Mara Greene admitted her client administered a vicious thrashing in August 1998, but argued that Randal's stepmother was the principal abuser.
She beat Randal a month later after becoming angry he had vomited yet another meal, Greene said; court was also told that on one occasion, she forced him to eat his own vomit.
Medical experts said the boy's troubles with food, along with his bowel and bladder incontinence, were likely the result of an undiagnosed brain injury.
Greene pointed to other medical evidence that suggested the fatal injuries were sustained during an afternoon beating the day before he died, when he was home alone with Marcia.
Damien Frost, who represented Marcia Dooley, countered that his client's husband was the more violent of the two and caused the more serious injuries that ultimately killed the boy.
He pointed to a severe thrashing Dooley administered within days of returning from a trip to the United States, in which the child was whipped with a belt until it shredded.
Frost cautioned jurors against letting their anger "overwhelm all reason," arguing Marcia Dooley's abusive tendencies were not evidence of murderous intent.
He also conceded his client was guilty of manslaughter, but not of second-degree murder, which would have meant she knew her abuse would kill Randal.
