Girl who murdered kin gets rehab

By NADIA MOHARIB, QMI Agency

MEDICINE HAT, Alberta - Plans to rehabilitate a girl who killed her family appear to be on track, with details being finalized for her to take the next step towards easing back into society, likely in the Calgary area, court heard Wednesday.

Crown prosecutor Ramona Robins stressed "baby steps" are necessary not only for the youth to succeed and but to ensure public safety.

"If the plan is to try to make her a successful human being, there has to be a transition," Robins said outside court.

"If you take someone with that level of isolation and don't transition them, they won't succeed.

"I think this next step is critical, to see how society will respond to her and how she will respond to society ... We will know in the next six months whether it's been an easy transition or not."

The teen, who can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was 12 when she and her boyfriend killed her parents and eight-year-old brother in a bloody April 2006 attack in their Medicine Hat home.

Not a candidate to be tried as an adult, she was handed the maximum term under the youth act and is now serving a 10-year sentence.

Co-accused Jeremy Steinke is serving a life term without chance of parole for 25 years.

Since her arrest, the youth has been in closed custody.

She was granted open-custody last November but has not ventured far -- only recently taking escorted walks on the grounds of an Edmonton psychiatric hospital where she resides.

During a mandated progress review done every six months, court heard Wednesday the girl is excelling at academic studies and therapy.

She is likely to be relocated to the Calgary area but details of conditions and restrictions, have to be approved by the Solicitor General's office.

She could be in a group home or a foster-parent type setting and under constant, but not necessarily direct supervision.

A key factor to be considered will be safety, for both the teen and the public, her lawyer Katherin Beyak said.

"Things are going very well, now we are working and progressing at having her released into a community placement of some sort," she said.

"She is understandably, excited but very apprehensive."

Outside court, Robins said, "We have someone who has been in custody since age 12."

"For the first few years she was never even allowed out on the property ... she's never gone shopping, every adult who deals with her is a paid person ... It's a big step."

The killer, now 16, appeared via closed-circuit TV, her long dark hair parted down the centre.

From: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2010/07/01/14575481.html