Port Coquitlam caregiver’s sentence in 2018 death was insufficient: appeals court

The BC Court of Appeal says a Port Coquitlam caregiver who was found guilty of not providing the necessaries of life after a 54-year old woman in her care starved to death should have received a stricter sentence.

Last year, Astrid Charlotte Dahl was handed a 12-month conditional sentence in the 2018 death of Florence Girard, who had Down syndrome and required around-the-clock care.

Related links:

• Isolation plays role in abuse of people with disabilities, advocate says, after woman’s death in PoCo

• PoCo caregiver, society charged in 2018 death

The appeal panel says that sentence, which is served in the community, didn’t properly reflect the gravity of the incident, and it imposed a 15-month prison sentence instead.

But Dahl still won’t be heading to prison, because the panel gave her five months’ credit for the possible early release she would have earned if she had been incarcerated straight away.

And because she has already served 10 months on the conditional sentence, the panel treated the prison sentence as served as well, as of the end of July.

Girard was found dead in a home on Oct. 13, 2018. Mounties say a 15-month investigation determined the victim “didn’t receive the necessaries of life,” and the coroner confirmed the woman’s death was from malnutrition and starvation.