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The Calgary woman charged in the death of her disabled adult daughter said demons in the wall were causing a horrible stench in her home, court heard Thursday.

Bryan Couture, the ex-husband of Patricia Couture and the father of their daughter, Melissa, said he complained to his former spouse about the excrement-like smell in their former matrimonial residence.

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“I knew at the time Pat was changing Melissa on the couch, which was easier for Pat than taking her to the washroom,” said Couture, who testified his daughter by that time had to wear adult diapers.

“I would come in and say, ‘Pat, you’ve got to open the doors,’ and then I would open the doors to try to get some of the odours out,” he said.

“It was definitely a smell of poop — excrement.”

Eventually, he said, she explained that “it was demons living in the walls, that’s what they smelled like,” Couture testified.

“When it finally didn’t go away, that was the answer.”