High court replaces conditional sentence with jail term for B.C. caregiver in disabled woman's death

B.C.'s highest court has overturned a sentencing decisionthat allowed a caregiver to avoid jail time for her role in the death of a developmentally disabled woman.

On Tuesday, the B.C. Court of Appeal granted a Crownappeal of the 12-month conditional sentence given to Astrid Charlotte Dahl for failing to provide the necessities of life to Florence Girard. A panel of three justices sentenced Dahl to 15 months in jail instead.

However, it does not appear that Dahl is actually headed to jail. Because she has already served 10 months of her conditional sentence and likely would have earned five months' credit for good behaviour behind bars, the justices said her term is considered fully served as of July 29.

Girard, a 54-year-old with Down syndrome, died of severe malnutrition in October 2018 while living with Dahl in Port Coquitlam, B.C., court records show.

An appeal court judgment handed down Tuesday says that Girard "slowly starved to death" over a period of several months while Dahl failed to seek medical attention for her declining health, loss of interest in food and plummeting weight.

Justice Patrice Abrioux wrote that a conditional sentence in this case "departs unreasonably from the fundamental principle of proportionality" when it comes to denouncing Dahl's crime and deterring others from doing the same.

"The respondent's role as a paid caregiver to Ms. Girard, the special trust relationship that existed in the context of abject vulnerability, the significant breach of that trust, and Ms. Dahl's failure to seek medical care for Ms. Girard when it was 'patently obvious' that not doing so would endanger her life, cannot be ignored," Abrioux said.

"Tragically, the respondent's failure to perform her duty resulted in Ms. Girard's likely preventable death. Such a failure is deserving of heightened denunciation and deterrence."

Dahl's actions 'constituted abuse,' court says

Dahl was convicted in July 2022 of failing to provide the necessaries of life, a charge that applies when a guardian, spouse or caregiver denies adequate food, shelter, medical care or protection from harm to a person in their care.

She was acquitted of criminal negligence causing death.

A B.C. Supreme Court Justice handed her a 12-month conditional sentence in September that included daily curfews and community service, to be followed by a year of probation.

Crown prosecutors argued on appeal that the lower court judge did not give proper weight to Dahl's moral culpability as a paid caregiver.

In granting the appeal, Abrioux wrote that the conditional sentence was "demonstrably unfit" considering Girard's vulnerability and Dahl's position of trust.

"There can be no doubt that, no matter her motives and compassion, [Dahl]'s conduct towards Ms. Girard in the last months of her life which resulted in death by starvation that may well have been avoided had Ms. Girard been referred to medical care in a timely way constituted abuse," Abrioux wrote.

Although her jail term is already considered served, the appeal court has ordered to Dahl to serve another 12 months of probation.

The society that hired Dahl as a contractor initially faced its own charge of failing to perform a legal duty to provide necessaries for Girard. The charge was stayed in 2020.