BRAMPTON

A father charged with killing his 10-year-old son pulled the child from school and would chain him to a bed, a court heard Monday.

Crown attorney Kelly Slate told a jury that Garfield Boothe took his son, Shakeil, out of Hanover Public School in January 2011 and would “discipline Shakeil by hitting him with a belt and physically abusing him.”

He also would chain Shakeil to his bed, freeing him only to use the washroom, shower and when family came to visit, Slate said in her opening address.

Boothe and his wife, Nichelle Boothe-Rowe — Shakeil’s stepmother, have each pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder.

Emergency personnel were called May 27, 2011, to the family’s Homeland Crt. home, where they found the lifeless boy.

Paramedics found Shakeil in his bed, cold to the touch and with white foam oozing from his mouth, court heard.

Slate said investigators later found traces of the child’s blood in various parts of the home, as well as on his father’s belt, and that the child had become malnourished.

Slate also alleged that Boothe, a native of Jamaica who had brought Shakeil to Canada from the Caribbean island in 2009, had at one point “stomped” on Shakeil’s chest after the boy ripped a page out of a Bible.

“It is the prosecution’s position that the evidence will show that Shakeil Boothe was removed from society and treated with abuse and neglect the last months of his life,” Slate told the jury.

Slate alleged that “things changed with respect to Shakeil” when Boothe and Boothe-Rowe had a baby of their own in September 2010.

Peel paramedic Kristy Eastwood testified she was first on the scene after Boothe phoned 911 and had to tell the father his son was dead.

“(Boothe) said, ‘OK.’ He didn’t really react at all ... He seemed very calm,” Eastwood told the court, adding that Shakeil had been dead for some time.

Peel Regional Police officer Andrew Gales testified Boothe broke down crying after being placed in a cruiser to be taken to a station to give a statement.

Slate said a Children’s Aid worker had contacted the family’s home the day before Shakeil was found after receiving an anonymous call.

The worker was told by a female at the Boothe home not to come over and that Shakeil’s father would be in touch, the jury was told.

Boothe called the case worker back and said Shakeil was living with his mother in Oshawa and that he would call again with the mother’s contact info. Slate said Boothe never made that call to the case worker.