WINNIPEG — A lawyer for a woman accused of hiding the remains of six infants in a storage locker says an independent pathologist should observe the autopsies which are to determine whether the babies were viable.
Greg Brodsky, who represents Andrea Giesbrecht, told a judge Friday he is not on a "fishing trip" and just wants to ensure the examinations are done fairly. Brodsky referred to the remains as "fetuses" and said they are not considered people under the law if they were less than 20 weeks gestation.
He added that the autopsy also has to determine if the infants were stillborn. That determination may come down to a matter of opinion, Brodsky said.
"It's like a traffic accident," he told provincial court Judge Brian Corrin. "Two people see different things although they're looking at the same thing."
Giesbrecht, who showed no emotion during the hearing, is charged with six counts of concealing a body and one count of breaching probation.
The 40-year-old has been in custody since the remains were discovered by employees at a U-Haul storage facility in Winnipeg on Oct. 20. They had gone to do inventory since the bill hadn't been paid.
The state of the remains was such that police said 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.
Thambirajah Balachandra, Manitoba's chief medical examiner, is opposed to Brodsky's request. He said it would be like having the accused in the examination room. His lawyer has said the autopsies are already "90 per cent complete."
Brodsky said police are allowed to observe the autopsies so his client should be given the same right.
"The person who has the most to lose is not entitled to be there, according to the Crown," Brodsky said. "If you look hard enough, you may find evidence that doesn't exist."
He pointed to the notorious case of a woman in Australia charged with the death of her baby, even though she always said the infant was killed by a wild dingo. She was eventually exonerated.
"People looking at the same injuries saw different things," Brodsky said.
The judge asked the lawyer if he would be satisfied if police were also excluded from the autopsy room. Brodsky said he would take that suggestion under advisement if a pathologist is not allowed to watch the examination.
The pathologist hired by the defence would not influence the autopsy, but would simply observe the examination "with his hands in his pockets and Velcro on his mouth," Brodsky said.
"All I want is someone to observe."
Crown attorney Debbie Bours argued the provincial court doesn't have jurisdiction over the medical examiner's office. She said the Crown would be filing a motion with Court of Queen's Bench that the hearing is outside the scope of Corrin's courtroom.
"We have indicated previously that was our position," she told the court.
