BARRIE

Calling her “selfish, self-centered,” and “self-serving,” a judge sentenced a woman to jail Friday for the long-term abuse of her 76-year-old mother who was found starving in filth and squalor.

Diana Davy, 49, and her husband, James Davy, 47, of Orillia, were sentenced to one year in jail and two years probation for failing to provide the necessities of life to Diana’s mother, Viola Simonds.

Crying out in pain and asking for her “momma,” Simonds was found covered in dirt, blood, feces and vomit on a bare mattress in a filthy room where the window was spray painted black in her Orillia home May 26, 2011.

She was dehydrated, starving, and suffering with a broken hip, beds sores and ulcers and her skin and hair were blackened with filth.

“The circumstances of this case are tragic and deplorable,” said Justice Guy DiTomaso.

During the trial, one paramedic wept on the witness stand as he described the horrific conditions.

Simonds, who was a nurse in her younger days, was rushed to hospital but she suffered too much brain and organ damage from dehydration and starvation to endure an operation to repair her hip. She died months later in a long-term care home.

The judge slammed the Davys for refusing to accept help from health care workers and for moving from place to place to evade social workers and family.

“Mr. and Mrs. Davy engaged in a disappearing act,” said the judge. “They deliberately played a game of hide and seek with the very people who were willing to care for her.”

By the time family members finally found located Simonds, they couldn’t recognize her.

“You isolated her from her own family,” said the judge. “You robbed her of the few precious remaining years they could have enjoyed with her.”

The judge noted Diana showed no remorse and her final words were to blame her family with a litany of accusations against them.

“Your excuses rang hollow, self-serving and false,” said the judge. “They were designed to deflect responsibility.”

While defence lawyers asked for conditional sentences to be served at home, the judge insisted a jail sentence is necessary to discourage similar crimes.

“Elder abuse is a growing problem in this society,” DiTomaso said. “In my view a jail sentence is the only reasonable sentence to protect these vulnerable people who are in the care of others.”

The husband and wife, who often appeared to sneer or laugh in court, showed no emotion as police officers snapped on handcuffs and escorted them away.