Trial over infant remains in storage locker could hinge on experts: lawyer

A lawyer for a woman charged with concealing the remains of six infants in a storage locker says her upcoming trial is likely to hinge on whether the babies were born alive.

Andrea Giesbrecht's trial before a judge alone is to begin Monday. She was arrested in October 2014 shortly after the remains were discovered, but she has been on bail for a year.

Despite numerous pre-trial hearings, the ages of the infants or a reason for why they were put in the storage locker has never been revealed.

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Greg Brodsky, Giesbrecht's lawyer, says the trial will probably be lengthy, since it will depend a great deal on the testimony of forensic pathologists and forensic anthropologists. The Crown has to "establish that they were live births," he says.

"That's a difficult problem. That's the reason for so many pathologists."

If the babies were not born alive, Brodsky will "argue about whether there should be a conviction or not."

"We're making certain challenges to the quality of the evidence and the interpretation to be taken from the evidence," he says. "It is an unusual case."

Court has already heard that police officers were called to a Winnipeg U-Haul facility after employees entered a locker to take inventory because the bill hadn't been paid. A police report read out in court said employees smelled a strong odour and saw "squishy bags."

Officers found bodies wrapped in garbage bags and placed in a duffle bag, a tote bag and plastic containers. One body was wrapped in a towel, as well as a garbage bag, and stored in a pail. One officer managed to pry open one container and saw "limbs that belonged to an infant."

The trial will deal with why the remains were kept in the first place, Brodsky says.

"The concealment is another issue. What was the purpose of maintaining the products of conception in the fashion that they were?"

That question has never been answered.

Court records indicate that Giesbrecht, who has also gone by the name Andrea Naworynski, is a gambling addict who had a low-paying job at a fast-food restaurant.

She has a history of unrelated fraud charges. Giesbrecht pleaded guilty earlier this year to failing to comply with a probation order and fraud over $5,000. She admitted to defrauding Manitoba's Employment and Income Assistance and going to a casino in defiance of a probation order from a previous fraud conviction.

Before that, Giesbrecht was given a suspended sentence and two years of probation after pleading guilty to fraud for borrowing money from a 73-year-old neighbour and repaying her with bounced cheques.

Giesbrecht whom Brodsky once described as "baffled" by the concealment charges is keen for the trial to proceed, he says.

"She's happy that the matter is finally coming to fruition. She's unhappy that it's going to take so long."