The maternal grandparents of a nearly two-year-old child who was killed in 2020 will serve one year of house arrest after pleading guilty in a North Bay courtroom to failing to provide the necessaries of life in a horrific case of child abuse.
Rhandi Melvaer, 62, and Wayne Smith, 63, said they “screwed up,” admitting their actions contributed to the death of their grandson, Oliver McCarthy.
The sentence was handed down May 1.
Heartbroken members of the McCarthy family hugged each other outside the courthouse after the sentence was handed down.
“He was starting to have personality. He was looking around and he just loved to look at things,” said Steve McCarthy, Oliver’s paternal grandfather.
Oliver was just 22 months old when he died from blunt force trauma Jan. 15, 2020, in East Ferris. His injuries were so severe that some of his internal organs burst.
At the time of his death, he was in the care of his mother, Nadine Maelvar, who has already been sentenced in the case.
Three months before his death, Oliver was taken to his family doctor with bruises on his ears.
A month later, he was rushed to the North Bay Regional Health Centre and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa for bruises on his body and broken ribs.