Last girl not granted bail in homeless swarming murder seeks release

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She is the final one standing — the last of the eight teenage girls charged in the shocking swarming and stabbing death of Ken Lee who hasn’t yet been released on bail.

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Charged with second-degree murder in the attack on the 59-year-old man who struggled with homelessness, she was 14 when she and seven other girls were arrested last December. Their bail hearings, which began in the old juvenile court on Jarvis St., were transferred to the sparkling new courthouse on Armoury St. before Justice Maria Sirivar.

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Alone now for her bail review, there is no one to snicker with anymore, no one to share a laugh or a roll of her eyes as there was back in January. She sits attentively beside her lawyer Joanne Prince looking like any teenage girl, dressed in a grey hoodie and black tights, her hair pulled back in a ponytail.

But detained in custody since that vicious night, she is anything but a normal teen.

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Toronto Police alleged she was a part of a pack of three 13-year-olds, three 14-year-olds and two 16-year-olds who swarmed and stabbed Lee at a parkette near York St. and University Ave. just after midnight on Dec. 18. He later died in hospital from his injuries.

Police have said they believe the teens congregated after meeting on social media and are from homes across the GTA.

The charges against them haven’t been tested in court and none of the girls can be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Sirivar initially granted bail to five teens in the case and denied release to three during a series of hearings that began in January. Those freed were under house arrest conditions that included not being online except for school, no cellphone, no weapons and no communication with their co-accused.

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The last two released in April had asked for an urgent bail review after they were unexpectedly transferred in the middle of the night by chartered flight from a youth detention centre in Brampton to one in Kenora.

The Brampton facility was flooded in mid-April, forcing its indefinite closure. Like everything else in these proceedings, the reasons for the flooding are covered by a publication ban.

Now the only girl who has remained in detention since December is hoping for freedom, as well. 

She returns to court Thursday but any decision on her release is likely at least a month away.

Meanwhile, she and her co-accused are back in court Wednesday for a routine pre-trial appearance.

mmandel@postmedia.com

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