Originally posted 2006 10 20 at [1] Fathers for Life:

Sins of the mother

Barbara Kay, National Post
Published: Wednesday, October 11, 2006

We have heard the story before. The names change, the province changes, the particulars of the custody case change, the age of the dead child changes, but some things stay the same when a mother kills her own children: Any objective observer can see the tragedy coming a mile away, the children are not removed from her toxic embrace before it happens, and the mother is not only insufficiently punished (if at all) for the crime, but receives public sympathy on the assumption she was driven to it by forces beyond her control.

Last week, Frances Elaine Campione, 31, locked in a year-long custody battle with her estranged husband Leonardo, was charged with the murder of their two baby daughters, one-year-old Sophia, and three-year-old Serena. Whatever the truth turns out to be in this case, warning signs had abounded: The Children’s Aid Society of Simcoe County, Ont. had kept an open file on this family for some time; former neighbours portrayed the mother as unstable and possibly suicidal; some described bizarre and frightening public behaviour; she had been hospitalized for treatment on several occasions.

In the past five years, there have been several comparable tragedies….([2] Full story)

Update 2010 09 15: Jury selection began on Monday for a murder trial that will explore the death of two Barrie toddlers who died almost four years ago….([3] Full Story)

Update 2010 10 08: Crown wraps it’s case against mom. Barrie woman charged with murdering her two young daughters….([4] Full Story)

Update 2010 10 23:  Voir dire in Campione trial….

Crown attorney Enno Meijers asked for the voir dire [a trial within a trial]. Since the jury was absent, there is a publication ban on any of the discussion inside the courtroom….([5] Full Story)

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The harsh reality of serious and fatal child abuse is that just about exactly 70 percent of it is committed by biological mothers and only about 9 percent or less by the natural fathers of children in families. (See also [6] Child Abuse and Mortality, by Senator Anne C. Cools (1995), and [7] Predominantly women, not men, kill children, by Walter Schneider (2002))