KIDS IN CRACK SLUM

Aunt Used Home For Drugs, Prostitution

A Winnipeg woman arrested after police found two young children living
in her North End crack house has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Police raided Michelle Laliberte's Manitoba Avenue home in March 2006
after a customer reported that the children's mother, Laliberte's
sister, was working as a prostitute out of the home and that the
children had not eaten for days.

Laliberte, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking cocaine and
possession of a prohibited weapon.

"This is one of the sadder cases I have had the misfortune of being
involved in," said Justice Shawn Greenberg. "Perhaps the most
remarkable indication of how bad it was for these children is the fact
that another crack addict made the call to police out of concern for
the children."

Police forced their way into the barricaded home and found two girls,
aged eight and five, sleeping on a bedroom floor under a pile of
towels, said Crown attorney Anne Turner.

"They were crying and begged officers for food, as they had not eaten
in days," she said.

The girls shared the bedroom with several cats and litter boxes that
were overflowing with feces. Their beds had been disassembled and
taken to another room used to smoke crack, Turner said. 'BAD COMPANY'

The filthy house contained no food, no fridge and almost no furniture.
Two toilets were unflushed and filled with feces and a bathtub was
found full of dirty water and clothes.

Police seized 78 rocks of crack and a sawed-off shotgun stashed in a
cooler in the living room.

Laliberte's sister arrived sometime later looking for her children and
was arrested by police.

Defence lawyer Hope Buset said Laliberte grew up in an abusive home,
was placed in foster care and was working the streets before her 13th
birthday. She became addicted to crack and had the first of seven
children when she was 16. All of the children have been seized by
Child and Family Services.

Buset said Laliberte moved in with her sister when she requested help
taking care of her kids. When the sister got into debt, "they resorted
to inviting some bad company to the house and selling drugs," Buset
said.

"She recognizes that it was a huge, huge mistake that she made," Buset
said.

Laliberte has served the equivalent of 19 months in custody, which
will be deducted from her total sentence.