No concerns about couple who starved boy to death: case worker tells inquest

TORONTO – A children’s aid worker who handled the case of a Toronto boy who died of starvation at the hands of his grandparents says she had no concerns about the couple.

Margarita Quintana of the Catholic Children’s Aid Society told the inquest into Jeffrey Baldwin’s death that grandmother Elva Bottineau seemed “highly concerned” about the well-being of her grandchildren.

Quintana says no records checks were carried out on Bottineau or her partner because there were no “protection” concerns.

The inquest has heard that both Bottineau and Norman Kidman had a history of child abuse, including separate convictions and various dealings with the children’s aid society.

But when the society was looking at placing Jeffrey and his siblings in their care, the inquest has heard the workers didn’t look through their own files to see what might be lurking in the grandparents’ past.

Bottineau and Kidman are serving life sentences for second-degree murder in Jeffrey’s death 11 years ago.