Grim details emerge in negligence case of dead toddler

The criminal negligence trial of a Woodstock,N.B.,woman and her former boyfriend continued Thursday, with more grim details emerging about the condition of a two-year-old girl who died from a perforated bowel while in the couple's care.

The child's mother, 27-year-old Anna-Marie Mooers, and the woman's former common-law partner, 26-year-old Curtis Brent Hathaway, are both accused of failing to realize that Mooers's daughter needed urgent medical attention in April 2004.

Social workers have testified they were too overworked to intervene properly before two-year-old Juli-Anna died three years ago, even though they had fielded several calls from people concerned about the girl's well-being.

Among the disturbing testimony the court heard on Wednesday was that a nine-centimetre-long toy stylus had somehow ended up inside Juli-Anna's large intestine, causing the perforation that ultimately killed her, doctors said.

One Woodstock pediatrician who examined Juli-Anna in 2004 one month before she died said the girl was bruised, severely dehydrated and clung to her mother throughout the appointment.

On Wednesday, the court alsoheard from a pathologist who said he found bruises all over the little girl's malnourished body andherpes sores around her mouth and vagina.

Most disturbing of all, he told the court that the pencil-shaped toy had been inside Juli-Anna's bowel for between two and three days, and would have caused her excruciating pain before she died.

The medical experts agreed that it was not an accident, but so far the court has not heard any evidence to suggest how the stylus entered her body.