Showing no emotion and choosing not to address the court, a now-retired United Church minister was sentenced to three years in jail for letting his immobile and incontinent wife die in 2011.

“Frankly, I am shocked by the disconnect by the love and support of Mr. (Nico) Vanderstoel’s congregationists and his refusal to seek support from them,” Ontario Court Justice Martin Lambert said Thursday. “This is a case of omission rather than commission.

“There is no doubt we are not going to see Mr. Vanderstoel in this court again. But the message to the public has to be loud and clear: In this type of case, the sentence must be denunciatory and exemplary and reflect society’s abhorrence in letting someone die in such a horrific manner.

“Your spouse, sir, should never have been left in this situation she was left, isolated and generally helpless. You had support on which you could have drawn.”

Vanderstoel, 75, had pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death.

Besides jail, Vanderstoel was given a 10-year weapons ban and ordered to provide a genetic sample to the National DNA databank.

He had no prior criminal record.

The Crown and defence lawyer William Beach, who provided more than 60 letters to the court in support of his client, suggested the sentence in a joint submission.

“He tried his best to look after his wife as long as he could,” said Beach. “He replaced mattresses … Nico Vanderstoel stands before you a broken man. He has lost nearly everything that had meaning in his life. He lost his wife. He lost his job. He lost his freedom.”

Greater Sudbury Police charged Vanderstoel after his wife, Heather, 66, died at Health Sciences North on April 6, 2011.

He had taken care of her on his own since August 2010.

Heather Vanderstoel, who had multiple sclerosis, married Nico in 1967 and worked as a teacher, but had to take an early retirement due to the advanced stages of the disease, which left her confined to a bed in the couple’s Whittaker Street home. She was unable to care for herself, including going to the bathroom.

That care was provided by Nico alone, since the Vanderstoels had no children and no homecare assistance had been lined up.

On Aug. 8, 2010, it took four paramedics to move Heather, who weighed more than 200 pounds, from the washroom to her bed. After that, she was able to move about on her own in the home until January 2011.

Nico, meanwhile, had gone back to work as a full-time United Church minister, heading St. Stephen’s-on-the-Hill Church in New Sudbury.

On March 15, 2011, a For Seniors Only employee arrived at the home to do paperwork for the provision of homecare help for Heather and “the smell of rotting flesh was overwhelming," said assistant Crown attorney Karen Lische.

The employee talked to Heather, but could only see her face as the rest of her body was covered by blankets.

The next day, For Seniors Only employees arrived to start providing homecare services and found Heather immobile, “living in a state of squalor and filth” and her body covered with infected bedsores.

They immediately decided to get Heather to hospital by ambulance, but the efforts to remove her by six paramedics were hindered by the home’s overpowering odour.

“There was a wall of smell that hit them as they walked toward the front door,” said Lische.”It was 15-20 feet from the front door of the home.”

On more than one occasion, a paramedic had to stop, go outside and throw up, said Lische, adding that Heather was described as “a corpse that speaks to you.”

At hospital, Heather was immediately taken to the Intensive Care Unit and underwent surgery to remove dead tissue. Heather was in extreme pain, but did indicate “she wanted the doctors to make her better.”

The ambulance that brought Heather to Health Sciences North, meanwhile, had to be decommissioned.

After surgery, it took two to four people two to four hours to change Heather’s dressings daily, said Lische. The process was extremely painful for the woman.

“Her screams could be heard on other hospital floors,” said Lische.

On April 6, Heather died. An autopsy determined her death was the result of complications of decubitis ulceration, or bedsores, which covered more than 15% her skin.

harold.carmichael@sunmedia.ca