Starved boy’s grandparents abused other kids 20 years prior, inquest told

TORONTO – Twenty years before a Toronto couple got custody of their five-year-old grandson and starved him to death, two other kids reported that the pair subjected them to horrific abuse.

Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman are both serving life sentences for second-degree murder in the death of their grandson, Jeffrey Baldwin.

The coroner’s inquest into the boy’s 2002 death is hearing today about the child abuse convictions that each Bottineau and Kidman had — unbeknownst to the Catholic Children’s Aid Society when they gave the couple custody of Jeffrey and his three siblings.

Bottineau was convicted in 1970 of assault causing bodily harm after her baby from another relationship died of pneumonia but had multiple fractures.

Bottineau went on to have another two children and Kidman was convicted in 1978 of assaulting them and was fined $300.

The inquest is hearing that those kids were made Crown wards and they later told stories of abuse that are eerily similar to what Jeffrey endured — being locked in a cold room, drinking out of the toilet and not being given enough to eat.