NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. — The father of an eight-year-old girl who was smothered by her mother says a happy, empathetic, sensitive and loving child was taken away from the world for no reason.
Gabe Batstone told a British Columbia Supreme Court judge at Lisa Batstone's sentencing hearing that the worst part has been seeing the impact on her two young half-brothers, who live with "profound grief."
Lisa Batstone, of Surrey, B.C., faces an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years for smothering her sleeping daughter, Teagan, with a plastic bag in December 2014.
Crown lawyer Christopher McPherson asked the judge to make the woman ineligible for parole for 16 to 18 years because Batstone abused her position of trust to kill a child and has continued to attempt to deflect blame.
Gabe Batstone's current wife, Stephanie Batstone, told the judge through tears that her eldest son has lost his ability to be a kid because Lisa Batstone took his sister, his best friend and his childhood.
The defence has not yet had the opportunity to make sentencing submissions, but it argued at trial that her mental state at the time of her daughter's death was unclear.