The woman helped her lover confine her own husband in the closet of their Toronto apartment for two and a half months.

By: Alyshah Hasham News reporter, Published on Thu May 30 2013

“This is the worst case of abuse and torture seen in Canada,” said Justice John McMahon, adding the “almost unspeakable” acts performed showed “a human nature of such depravity it is beyond conscience.”

The 32-year-old woman, who cannot be named to due a publication ban that protects her husband, pleaded guilty in January 2012 to aggravated assault, sexual assault causing bodily harm and failing to provide the necessities of life.

She watched her lover and the father of her child, John Michael Siscoe, beat her husband with a broom handle until it broke, cut him with razor blades and pour lighter fluid — or sometimes hairspray or aftershave — over parts of his body and set it alight, according to the agreed statement of facts.As he screamed she told him to “shut up” fearing her unborn child would be taken from her by social services. Occasionally she held her husband down as Siscoe inserted pins into various parts of his body.

In making his sentencing decision McMahon said he had to balance the woman’s limited cognitive ability with her capacity to make decisions.

Defence lawyer Vivian Ropchan argued that the woman — considered by forensic psychiatrist Derek Pallandi to be a “childlike” and gullible woman with an IQ of only 59 — was in thrall to Siscoe.

McMahon agreed that Siscoe did manipulate the woman to a certain extent, but found that her “limited intelligence” did not excuse her active participation in the torture.

He concurred with the assessment of forensic psychologist Percy Wright: “She knew what was wrong. . . . She knew this was something to be hidden.”

And at no point, despite many opportunities, did she “do the right thing,” and report the abuse to authorities, said McMahon.

“This is not a case where a mildly mentally retarded person was kept in isolation,” he said, noting the woman often went out to the local pub and made friends in the community.

The victim met Siscoe during an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in a small B.C. town in 2008. The victim and his wife had been married for three years.

She soon entered a sexual relationship with Siscoe while the three lived together. In 2009, when she was pregnant with Siscoe’s child, they all moved into a cramped one-bedroom basement apartment in Toronto’s west end.

The abuse began there around Halloween and continued until Jan. 19, 2010. The victim, who was kept in a closet, was only discovered after a neighbour was invited to the apartment. Siscoe asked the man to come out from the closet and the visitor saw his injuries.

When police found him he was “near death,” said McMahon, listing his injuries from fractures to his skull and ribs, to oozing wounds and two collapsed lungs.

The victim has returned to B.C. where he is undergoing treatment for the injuries that affect nearly every part of his body, as well as the nightmares that continue to plague him.

McMahon has requested the woman serve her remaining sentence in B.C. to be close to her family, including her parents who have legally adopted her child. She has already served the equivalent of two years and eight months.

Siscoe’s sentencing hearing, where the Crown hopes to designate him a dangerous offender, will begin Nov. 18.