Hamilton mom says her son left scarred by 14-year-old accused in Devan Selvey murder

The scar runs the width of the teen's arm in a thick white line still surrounded by 14 distinct marks where staples were pressed into his flesh to seal the gaping wound.

It's an ugly reminder of an ugly cut. But the mother of the 16-year-old who suffered the injury back in June 2017 says her son believes his scar could signify something uglier still.

The same 14-year-old who police believe killed Devan Selvey is now charged with assault causing bodily harm — and the woman says her teenage son is the victim who was slashed in the alleged attack, but he didn't feel safe enough to talk about what happened until after the accused was behind bars.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act prevents CBC News from identifying the teen, his mother or the accused. On Thursday police announced several new charges against the teen they allege stabbed Devan, 14, behind Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School on Oct. 7.

The new charges stem from two incidents police say are not linked to Devan's death. CBC News has independently confirmed that the new charges are connected to the attack on the 16-year-old.

But for the mother, who watched her son struggle for years to share what he'd been through, there are connections that go beyond the fact that the same person is accused.

The mother says her son told detectives he felt the teens who allegedly attacked Devan "practiced on me my whole life."

While the new police charges relate to two specific allegations, she laid out a long list of incidents dating back to her son's public school days involving a group of boys he wanted to be friends with. He told her he sees that history of bullying as an escalation of violence in the years leading up to Devan's death.

"He felt he made it easy for them to torture somebody … because it was so easy for them to do it to him and they weren't getting in trouble," she said.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

In detailing the new charges they laid this week, police described the two incidents, the first of which happened in June 2017 and the second in January 2019.

Police said the 2017 incident happened at a home in Hamilton's East End where the teen met up with several other people before he was assaulted with a weapon, threatened and held against his will.

Then in 2019 the teen and the accused got into a verbal argument and police say the victim was again threatened.

'Right down to his bone'

It's the first of those incidents, the mother says, that left her son scarred for life.

The teen told her he was hanging out with a group of boys at a house when some of them held him down. That's when, she alleges, one of them pulled out a knife and cut her son's arm before starting to laugh.

Her son ended up walking home with another boy, his arm wrapped up tight in a T-shirt.

The teen told his parents he had fallen on a fence, but his mother says they knew right away that was a lie. The cut was too clean, too deep.

"It [went] right down to his bone. The scar now … almost goes around his arm," she said, adding it took 14 staples to seal the wound. "The slice mark is still pretty thick."

At the time her son wasn't ready to share what happened, but a few months later the mother says he was attacked again while out at the Wentworth Stairs with a group of guys who had gone there to smoke pot.

This time the 14-year-old was not involved, according to the victim's mother, but she says her son was beaten and threatened with a machete before his socks were cut up and his shoes, shirt and phone all stolen.

His parents reported what happened to police and the mother says that case is still before the courts.

It was that attack that pushed the teen to tell his parents and police how his arm had been cut, but his mother says he was too scared to press charges at the time.

In a news release Thursday police said the teen didn't report what happened to him "due to fear." He only came forward after the 14-year-old was arrested following Devan's death.

'He didn't want to hide anymore'

When Devan was killed, the teen felt he couldn't stay silent anymore.

"[He] wanted to do the right thing," she said. "He didn't want to hide anymore."

The new charges for the 14-year-old include assault causing bodily harm, forcible confinement and two counts of uttering threats to cause bodily harm or death.

The woman says she had an emotional meeting Thursday with Shari-Anne Selvey, Devan's mom, to talk about what happened to their boys.

"I feel relieved for my son because he's been hiding forever," said the mother. "I want him to know he can stand up for himself and it will be OK. Nobody is going to hurt him anymore."

The woman says she couldn't understand why her son continued to hang out with boys he says were so cruel to him, so she asked him to explain. She described the answer he gave as "heartbreaking."

"He said he just wanted to have friends," she recalled. "He said, 'Sometimes it wasn't that bad, Mom.'"