Judge rules against having independent pathologist at Winnipeg baby autopsies

WINNIPEG – There will be no independent pathologist at the autopsies on six infants whose remains were found in a Winnipeg storage locker.

A judge has rejected the request that was made by the lawyer defending a woman charged with concealing the bodies.

Andrea Giesbrecht (GEEZ’-brehkt) also faces new, unrelated charges of fraud and breaching a court order, so her bail hearing was postponed to Dec. 1.

Defence lawyer Greg Brodsky had argued that since police were allowed to observe the autopsies, his client should be given the same right through an independent party.

But the medical examiner said it would have been like having the accused in the examining room.

The autopsies were already almost complete when they were put on hold while Brodsky’s request was heard.

Police have said the state of the remains was such that it could take months of forensic examination before it might be known who the parents were, how the infants died and whether they were full term.

Brodsky has said that, under the law, the infants will not be considered people if they turn out to be less than 20 weeks gestation.

A police report read out in court last week said the remains were in kitchen garbage bags, plastic containers and, in one case, a pail at a storage unit at a U-Haul facility.

(CJOB, The Canadian Press)