The foster parents of a murdered seven-year-old Toronto girl were sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday

Paul Johnston, cp24.com

Published Tuesday, May. 1, 2012 6:43PM EDT

The foster parents of a murdered seven-year-old Toronto girl were sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday.

Katelynn Sampson's death shocked the city when her body was discovered in a Parkdale apartment building where she lived with her foster parents in the summer of 2008. She was said to have suffered extreme abuse under the couple's care.

On Tuesday, Sampson's foster parents Donna Irving, 33, and Warren Johnson, 50, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the girl's death after initially being charged with first-degree murder.

They were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years.

In his sentencing reasoning, Justice John McMahon called the murder "brutal, cruel and inhumane."

He added that a lack of action on the part of the Children's Aid Society and Native Child and Family Services of Toronto was surprising.

"The alarm bells were ringing, but no one was responding," McMahon said. "If someone had, we wouldn't be in this courtroom this afternoon.

With files from CTV Toronto's Tamara Cherry