Andrea Giesbrecht, awaiting appeal of conviction for concealing infant remains, wants bail

Andrea Giesbrecht will return to a Winnipeg courtroom Thursday to argue she should be released on bail pending the appeal of her conviction for concealing the remains of six infants in a storage locker.

Giesbrecht, 43, was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison last summer and is appealing both her conviction and sentence. A date for her appeal has not been set.

Giesbrecht was arrested in October 2014 after the remains of the infants were found in a U-Haul storage locker she had rented.

What caused the deaths of the infants could not be determined because the remains were too badly decomposed. Giesbrecht did not testify during her trial, leaving many questions surrounding the babies unanswered.

In his ruling convicting her, provincial court Judge Murray Thompson said he was convinced that Giesbrecht was the mother of all six infants — five males and one female — and that she stored them with the intention of concealing their births as they decomposed in plastic bins and pails.

Defence lawyer Greg Brodsky filed 41 grounds for appeal, including an argument the remains were being saved in the storage locker, not concealed.

Brodsky alleged the Crown prosecuted the case as if she had been charged with murder, not the charges for which she was ultimately convicted, which related to concealing the remains.

"I want to deal with [the case] based on the charges that were before the court … not charges that were stayed," Brodsky said in an inteview with CBC News Tuesday. 

Giesbrecht is serving her sentence out of province.

Brodsky said Giesbrecht is in a holding pattern until her appeal is heard. 

"She can't get into programming unless she acknowledges guilt and she cannot acknowledge guilt without abandoning her appeal," he said.