Radita murder trial: Parents had 2nd child seized by social services and a baby who died

Calgary parents on trial for the death of their teenagediabetic son had earlier run-ins with social services officials in Ontario concerning the care of another child, CBC News has learned.

Emil andRodicaRaditaare on trialfor first-degree murder after their 15-year-old son Alexwas found dead inside the family's Calgaryhome weighing just 37 pounds.

He died of starvation and neglect, complications from untreated diabetes.

More than a decade earlier, one of his siblings had also been taken from the family by authorities in Ontario after theRaditasrefused to allow ahospital to treat the sick infant.

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The couple also had a baby who died in the1990sin unclear circumstances, records show.

The family subsequently moved to British Columbia.

Information relating to the family's time in Ontario comes from a 2004 testimony transcriptof B.C. social worker Patricia MacDonald,who gave evidence at a hearing in an effort to keep Alex from being returned to his parents.

In 2003, five-year-old Alex was taken to hospital so ill, one witness at his parents' murder trial testified he was hours from dying of untreated diabetes.

At that time he was taken from his family by B.C. social services for several months.

The child protection hearing before B.C. provincial court Judge GaryCohen took place nearly a year after Alex was removed from the family home.

At the end of the child protection hearing,Cohenrefused to acceptMacDonald'stestimonythattheRaditaswere likely to continue withholding treatment.

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MacDonald also testified there was a risk the family would flee the jurisdiction so Alex would not be able to be monitored as they had done in Ontarioyears earlier.

Baby girl dies

In the1990s, before theRaditasmoved to B.C., the family lived in two Ontario cities Windsor andKitchener.

OntarioChildren's Aid became involved twice when the parents refused to allow a hospital to treat their ill child, according to MacDonald'stestimony.

In preparingto present evidencethat Alex should not be returned to his parents, MacDonaldcontacted Children's Aid where she learned details of the Raditas time in Ontario.

That's how she learnedthe family moved twice so thatinvestigations could not be completed, MacDonald told Cohen.

In the firstcase, one of the Radita children was born prematurely and needed oxygen, but Rodica refused to let medical staff treat the newborn. At that time, Children's Aid was called in and seized the infant so that medical care could continue.

When the same child was five months old, the baby fellill and Rodica gave the infant adult Tylenol. The baby was brought to hospital and began having seizures though it's unclear if the seizures were related to the pain reliever.

Anti-seizure medication was given to the child, but Rodica was so resistant that Children's Aid had to step in again so that the sick baby could receive treatment. He was returned once the Raditas agreed to administer the medicine.

The Raditas also had a 3-month-old baby girl who died in the early 1990sin Ontario, but the circumstances of the infant's death are unclear.

MacDonaldtestified that she was told the baby had bronchial pneumonia, but the parents refused to tell her the girl's name or birth date so the social worker was not able to obtain the coroner's report.

Throughout the four-week Court of Queen's Bench judge-alone trial, Justice Karen Horner heard evidence that after the Raditas moved to Alberta around 2009, they never took their diabetic son to a doctor and he never attended school.

Paramedics found his skeletal body in May, 2013. He was so badly emaciated, the medical examiner testified the boy was in the 0.1percentile for15-year-olds based on his weight and height.

The trial set for four weeks ran out of time and will continue in September for a week.

Prosecutors Susan Pepper and Marta Juswiak have rested the Crown'scase and it's not yet known if defence lawyersJim Lutz and Andrea Serinkwill call evidence.

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