Mom allowed child molester to babysit

Sam Pazzano - QMI Agency

TORONTO - A local mother was found guilty Friday of exposing her 10-year-old daughter to two known child molesters for their perverse sexual gratification.

After four days of deliberations, a jury found the 60-year-old woman allowed convicted pedophile Randolph "Randie" Bartley, 54, to babysit her daughter between Feb. 1, 2005, and Aug. 21, 2006.

The mother was also convicted of two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and several counts of obstructing a peace officer and obstructing justice for attempting to lie or persuade the victim and another witness to fabricate their accounts.

The woman cannot be identified due to a publication ban on the victim's identity. The girl is now in the custody of her godmother.

The verdicts mean the mother facilitated Bartley's sexual acts, up to attempted penetration, cunnilingus and asking for fellatio involving a nine or 10-year-old girl.

Bartley, who was released from jail in 2004, also videotaped her genitals.

One witness testified another pedophile, Gary Hoare, carried the victim "like a bride up the stairs."

"She let him babysit her child overnight in his apartment many times," Crown attorney Paul Leishman told the jury in his closing. "The mother slept over in one bed, letting Mr. Bartley sleep in another bed with the victim.

"The mother's conduct is an utterly disturbing breach of trust," he said.

The woman was introduced to her child's tormentors, Bartley and Hoare, as alleged child molesters in jail by infamous pedophile John Douglas Mackenzie in 2003.

Mackenzie was in custody with the mom's friend at the time.

Mackenzie was extradited from Toronto to California in 2005 and pleaded guilty last year to five counts of committing lewd acts on a child.

The woman adopted the victim as an 18-month-old orphan from Eastern Europe in 1997, but she let her child live with elderly, sickly maternal grandparents in the Brantford-area while she worked and lived in Toronto.

Twice, the girl was apprehended by children welfare authorities, but the mom regained permanent custody in 2003.

After both of the accused's parents died by early 2006, she inherited their home.

She let Hoare, who was freed from jail in 2005, live rent-free in the basement in exchange for renovation work on the home.

Between Jan. 5, and Aug. 17, 2006, she left her child alone with Hoare for extended periods of time while she lived in Toronto.

A date for the mom's sentencing will be set on June 10.