Justice for Mrs. Bell
Elderly woman died before son pleaded guilty to assaulting her
By STEVE BRUCE Court Reporter
Wed. May 28 - 6:00 PM
If Allan Muir Bell thought his mother’s death last summer at age 98 meant he was legally off the hook for abusing her six months earlier, he soon learned otherwise from the prosecutor.
“Defence counsel contacted me and asked if the charge was going to go away,” Crown attorney Melanie Perry said in an interview this week with The Chronicle Herald.
“And I said, ‘No, it’s not going away. We’re just as intent on prosecuting this as the day we got this.’ ”
Then, just as his provincial court trial on a charge of assault causing bodily harm was to get underway last Friday, the 53-year-old Dartmouth man pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of common assault. He was sentenced to 18 months’ probation with counselling.
Evelyn Bell died last August from unrelated causes.
“The Crown takes reports of elder abuse very seriously,” Ms. Perry said. “When we get a case like this, it’s not going to be something that we’re going to put to bed because the victim passes away.
“Our elderly need to be protected and we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that happens. We’re going to see justice for them, regardless of whether they’ve passed away or not.”
On the morning of Feb. 24, 2007, police were called to Dartmouth General Hospital to investigate a report that an elderly woman had been assaulted overnight by her intoxicated son at her house on Micmac Drive.
During his 18 months on probation, Mr. Bell must undergo counselling for substance abuse, mental health and anger management. He’s not allowed to consume alcohol or drugs and is prohibited from having any weapons.
Judge Murphy also ordered him to provide a sample of his DNA to a national offenders databank.
Ms. Perry said prosecutors are seeing “more and more cases like this, and it’s not just physical abuse of the elderly. It’s abuse of power of attorney, taking them for a ride, taking their money, that sort of thing.
“If there’s one segment of the population that needs to be protected, it’s the elderly.”
Abridged
SOURCE: TheChronicleHerald
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