8-year-old's violent behaviour stuns small town

Zoe McKnight, National Post · Saturday, Jul. 31, 2010

In the isolated town of Stoneville, N.L., population less than 500, residents are starting to wonder what to do about an eight-year-old boy whose behaviour has long concerned them, but has now grown violent.

First, it was a dog bludgeoned to death with a barbecue utensil in June. And now it's a dozen ducks, hens and chicks kept in a backyard as pets, found beaten with gardening tools on Tuesday.

The boy, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has admitted to both attacks, police say, although he is too young to be charged with a criminal offence. It is believed that the boy used gardening tools he found in the shed of Cory Hodder to kill the birds. Some were so badly abused they had to be euthanized.

"I expected something to happen and I expect more," said resident Marlene Gillingham. "I wish there was something that somebody could do. There should be some kind of a home for kids like this. So they could learn, and get this out of their blood. It's just in him."

Ms. Gillingham has two children herself, aged 5 and 7. She said she worries for their safety as they go to school with the boy.

Almost everyone in tightknit Stoneville has lived there all their life. Most people are related. The town itself is just a post office, a hall, a gas bar and Ginn's general store. You can walk from end to end in less than an hour. There are very few jobs and most people travel to work. St. John's lies more than 400 kilometres or a five-hour drive to the southeast.

"I'll soon be 70 years old, and I don't remember anything like this happening in Stoneville before," resident Rosie Bennett said. She said she was surprised the first time the boy admitted killing an animal, but now she is simply worried.

"The only fear you might have is, would he do the same thing with another child? Would the next thing be something bigger than an animal? Probably a kid smaller than himself."

"He's a bad boy. I don't know what's wrong with him," said Irene Hodder, who knows the family well. "He's only eight years old. My goodness!"

"They're going to have to take him out to some school or put him away for a while," Evelyn Hodder said. "If they don't do something about it, he could end up hurting a youngster, a little one."

Marlene Brown has two children, 4 and 6, and lives near the boy's family home. "He's only eight years old, but I got two small kids and I don't allow him on my property or anywhere near here. If I see him coming, I tell him to leave because he's not quite trustworthy around here anymore," Ms. Brown said.

The boy wanders over to her house and seems to have no adult supervision, she said. He's even been out in the neighbourhood since the incident on Tuesday night.

Last summer, when her son was 3, Ms. Brown found the boy had pinned him to the pavement outside. She has caught him destroying birds' nests in her yard.

"My kids think it's wonderful [that] there's little babies out in the nest. He could come and smash them on the ground and that's it. That's just the way he is." She said it's happened "tons of times."

RCMP Sergeant Wayne Newell confirmed police had initially handled the matter but have passed it along to the provincial department of Child, Youth and Family Services.

Many people in Stoneville expressed a wish that there was some place the boy could go to get help. "He's certainly not getting it with his parents," Ms. Gillingham said.

One woman, who is an aunt to both the boy's unmarried parents, who are cousins, said his parents don't get along. "Sometimes I think it's the way they're reared up," she said.

The father will shoot "a bird, a duck, a seagull, anything that moves," Ms. Gillingham said. When interviewed last month after the boy killed Cuddles, a black Pomeranian belonging to Emma and Norman Hodder, the father largely shrugged the incident off: "Yeah, it's not a very good thing for him to do but the dog is dead, you can't bring him back.''

Cory Hodder said his birds were pets for his kids; he immediately suspected the boy. "There's nobody here in Stoneville who could do like only he," Mr. Hodder said.

Mr. Hodder said that he has not been offered compensation, but intends to ask for $25 per bird. He is willing to take the matter to court because an apology will never come.

"Humans got a sense. Animals ain't. That kid there, he should have had better sense. He should have been taught right from wrong," Mr. Hodder said.

From: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/toronto/year+behaviour+stuns+town/3345136/story.html