DISCLAIMER: The following account involves incidents of child abuse.
An ex-resident of Ottawa, found guilty of manslaughter in the demise of her five-year-old daughter during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis, has been handed a 10-year prison term with credit for time served — marking the closure of a peculiar, brief, and tragic phase in Chloe Guan-Branch’s life.
Back in the spring of 2020, Chloe urgently required medical attention to sustain her life. Her bladder had unexpectedly ruptured in her Ottawa residence on May 9, and her body’s waste was seeping into her bloodstream, causing toxicity.
Over a span of six days, her mother Ada Guan and Guan’s partner Justin Cassie-Berube failed to provide Chloe with the necessary aid. They researched her deteriorating symptoms online and sought advice from a pharmacist, yet they refrained from taking her to a medical professional — despite her loss of mobility, incontinence, persistent vomiting, and evident distress.
In situations like this, where a defenseless child is essentially abandoned to perish… the sentence should mirror society’s stance on such egregious parental neglect towards a child.– Ottawa Superior Court Justice Anne London-Weinstein
The court learned that their reluctance stemmed from fears of exposing the physical abuse inflicted on Chloe by Cassie-Berube, which included a blow to her mouth on her fifth birthday, causing a split beneath her lip.
The girl, who gained international attention for being born on a plane five years prior, tragically passed away alone in her room on May 15, 2020, lying in her soiled bed, while Guan was watching TV in another room and Cassie-Berube was absent.
The sentencing by Superior Court Justice Anne London-Weinstein on Wednesday concludes 17 months after Guan, 33, pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Following her plea, she remained free on bail until September, when she was apprehended in Calgary and detained in Ottawa due to repeated non-attendance in court before the sentencing.
Besides the manslaughter charge, Guan admitted to failing to appear in court. Both the prosecution and defense jointly recommended an additional month’s imprisonment for the latter charge