Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney’s murder trial began hearing mountains of evidence from their seized phones on Monday, including disjointed text conversations referring to the boy they were seeking to adopt as “a loser” and more.

By Jacques Gallant Courts and Justice Reporter The Star

A 12-year-old boy who was found dead in a Burlington basement was referred to by his prospective mothers as a “f—-ing prick” and in their text messages as “a loser.”

The Crown at Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney’s murder trial, now entering its fourth month, began presenting mountains of evidence on Monday from their seized phones, including thousands of pages of data and records of disjointed text conversations, often with limited context. 

In one such exchange from 2019, Hamber and Cooney text in apparent anger about the boy, who would have been about nine years old.

“No dinner with fam … he can eat outside,” Hamber texted Cooney, along with a largely inaudible audio clip of the boy asking to go outside. When Cooney asks what she wants to do, Hamber responds: “Ignore he’s a loser,” and then, “He’s such a dick.” 

The women then refer to the boy cracking his knuckles and picking at his teeth — “Hope he gets an infection,” Hamber says. 

The boy was found by first responders unresponsive and soaking wet in a room in the women’s basement on Dec. 21, 2022; a publication ban covers his identity and that of his younger brother, who had been living with the couple since 2017. The Crown has alleged Hamber and Cooney despised the boy and left him to die in the basement; he suffered the effects of severe malnutrition in the last year of his life. The couple have pleaded not guilty in the judge-alone trial to first-degree murder, and well as to unlawfully confining, assaulting and failing to provide necessaries of life for the surviving boy. 

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/this-boy-is-a-ticking-time-bomb-ontario-doctor-acknowledges-malnourished-child-12-might-not/article_f5ef29a7-fc64-4be2-bb6e-5f7d330c28fc.html

The lengthy trial began hearing Monday from Sgt. Julie Powers of Halton Regional Police, the officer in charge of the case. She testified that police seized a number of devices from the women following their arrests: phones, an iPad and a laptop. They found a large number of text messages on Cooney’s phone, spanning from 2019 to early 2023, that had been deleted, as well as web searches on deleting images from an iPhone but not from the iCloud. 

In another 2019 text exchange, accompanying an audio clip of the deceased boy having a tantrum, Hamber tells Cooney that he won’t be going to school that day: “Douche is staying at home.”

And in a 2020 text exchange accompanying a surveillance video clip of the boy sleeping in bed, Cooney asks: “Back in jail?” and Hamber responds that she received a “fake” apology from the boy over an unspecified issue. “I literally called bulls—- and he fake cried,” she wrote.  

The surviving brother testified last month about life in the home being strict and the existence of a “restraint system,” which included being zip-tied into a tent to sleep, and being made to pace up and down a flight of stairs as a punishment. On Monday, the Crown also entered into evidence a 25-minute audio clip of the women berating the deceased boy in 2020 for not “doing stairs correctly.” 
Throughout the clip, the boy barely responds as the women yell at him. 

“Is it that you don’t want to listen to us because, one, we’re parents, two, that we’re your moms, or three, that we’re women?” 
Cooney says as the boy says he’s tired, and she responds: “So you don’t listen to us because you get tired? Do you know how dumb that sounds?”

She can be heard growing increasingly frustrated with the boy, telling him: “Here’s the thing. We’ve now taught you how to be a nice human being for three years, and you’re still not nice.”

When the boy says he doesn’t know what the women want him to do, Cooney raises her voice: 

“A nice person. Do what you’re asked. Be nice. Don’t disrespect. Don’t lie. Don’t make excuses.” She then tells him to “go away” and to go “live” in his bedroom for the day. After the boy leaves, one of the women can be heard saying, “F—-ing prick.” 

Powers also testified that when police searched the women’s home in January 2023, she noticed a few major differences. While there were originally cameras in the deceased boy’s room and elsewhere in the house, the cameras were gone in January 2023. The colour of the boy’s room had been painted from blue to purple, and there was nothing left in it aside from some documents, said Powers. And locks previously seen on the outside of bedroom doors were no longer there, she said. 

Powers said that “initially, there were quite a number of videos and photos of both of the boys” found on the women’s devices — depicting them during outings, hanging around at home and on special occasions during their early years in the Hamber and Cooney household — but that there was “a lot less” of the deceased boy as he got older. 

There were also photos showing the boys with minor injuries: the deceased boy in a wetsuit with a cut lip, and his younger brother with scratches behind his ear. 

The Crown also entered into evidence the wetsuits that Powers said she saw the boys wearing in some of the photos and videos; donning a pair of blue gloves, Crown attorney Monica Mackenzie held up each small suit one by one to show Powers. The officer also identified bags full of zip ties of different colours that had been found at the residence. 

The trial continues.

https://www.thespec.com/thestar/news/canada/hope-he-gets-an-infection-prospective-moms-called-boy-loser-in-texts-years-before-his/article_ae9624c7-3131-5eb0-aba2-f4aae2ac7543.html

Previous Posts:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1nj0cra/boy_12_left_to_die_in_basement_by_prospective/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1nk171m/hunter_did_cas_give_accused_killer_parents_becky/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1npv805/teacher_describes_prospective_parents_becky/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1nqgbyg/terrified_teacher_called_childrens_aid_over/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1nsax7v/that_was_her_source_of_income_coworker_recalls/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1nvo6ih/why_was_this_dying_boy_12_in_a_wetsuit_paramedics/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1nygym1/he_weighed_nothing_adoptive_moms_brandy_cooney/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1o3py57/talking_smiling_laughing_er_doctor_tells_murder/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1ocei88/severely_malnourished_boy_was_a_normal_weight/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1ofkrn0/couples_use_of_zip_ties_on_boys_wasnt_enough_to/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1onxvwa/pathologist_dr_michael_pickup_unable_to_determine/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1oo3voj/this_boy_is_a_ticking_time_bomb_ontario_doctor_dr/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1ooxlic/a_cas_worker_lisa_potts_saw_a_12yearold_boy_three/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1osgcry/childrens_aid_fired_three_workers_after_12yearold/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1ovzg6z/zip_ties_locks_and_his_adoptive_moms_restraint/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1oy2ii6/boy_testifies_about_adoptive_moms_bizarre_rules/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1p0cs6a/they_tied_my_arms_boy_13_testifies_in_adoptive/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1p0hoh0/in_final_day_alive_boy_was_screaming_vomiting_in/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1p3odf6/mandel_dead_boys_brother_accused_of_lying_about/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1p6wyoe/your_story_changed_surviving_boy_crossexamined_in/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimeInTheGta/comments/1p9f7a3/mandel_therapist_terra_bovingdon_at_two_moms/


‘Hope he gets an infection’: Prospective moms (Becky Hamber & Brandy Cooney) called boy ‘loser’ in texts years before his death, Ontario murder trial hears