Writings offer glimpse of accused

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This article was published 27/06/2012 (4891 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Accused Winnipeg serial killer Shawn Lamb has admitted to harbouring years of pent-up anger over what he says were years of neglect and abuse at the hands of several important women in his life.

Court documents obtained by the Free Press show Lamb, 52, was struggling in recent years to deal with the fact he was removed from his now-deceased biological mother’s care at the age of two as part of the “’60s scoop,” taken from his First Nation community and raised by a white family in Ontario.

Lamb claims his now-deceased foster mother sexually and physically abused him while also introducing him to alcohol when he was just nine. He makes similar claims against his now-estranged stepsister, saying she would play “doctor” with him as a young child and molest him.

“Why did they stomp out the last tiny vestiges of self worth from this child? What wrong had he committed? Why was he kicked and beaten, raped and abused in both mind and body? Why?” Lamb states in an excerpt of a self-help book he was writing.

The handwritten document was tendered as an exhibit during a sentencing hearing two years ago to help the judge gain insight into Lamb’s troubled past, which included 99 prior criminal convictions between 1976 and 2010.

Police have disclosed no apparent motive for the three homicides Lamb is now accused of committing. He is charged with second-degree murder in the deaths of Tanya Nepinak on Sept. 13, Carolyn Sinclair on Dec. 18 and Lorna Blacksmith on Jan. 12. The bodies of Sinclair and Blacksmith have been found, but Nepinak’s remains have not been located.

Investigators are scouring unsolved and missing-persons cases around the country to determine if Lamb could be linked to any other slayings.

Lamb has hired Evan Roitenberg, the lawyer who recently represented Graham James.

His case has been adjourned to July 6, and he hasn’t made a bail application. He is being held at the Winnipeg Remand Centre.

Lamb previously told court he was diagnosed in 2001 as being bipolar and took solace in expressing his deepest, darkest feelings through the written word.

He was working with the John Howard Society in 2010 to express his views and said he wanted to publish the book to help others avoid the same mistakes he’d made.

“Once upon a time there was born a baby boy, a little Indian boy as sweet and fat-cheeked and gifted by the Creator as any baby anywhere. He was born innocent, as innocent as a puppy,” Lamb began in the excerpt given to provincial court Judge Linda Giesbrecht. “An innocent baby deserves not to be torn apart from its mother.”

Lamb discussed having three serious adult relationships; all ended in domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse.

He became the father of three children he never knew, spending much of his adult life behind bars.

“I’m just a coward pretending not to be afraid, sounding confident, powerful looking bold and fearsome as if I could rip off the heads of my opponents,” Lamb wrote.

“But in my belly, the wee bottom of my little belly, is a boy still afraid, feeling alone, unknown if what he has will be enough to win, to survive.”

Lamb expressed plenty of confusion and anger about what was done to him, saying it was only natural his life had gone downhill.

“Now take a puppy, when he comes up to you, wanting you to pick him up and love him. If you kick that innocent puppy instead, and when he’s hungry you throw him out into the cold without food, and when he wants to be warm and safe you let the vicious neighbourhood dogs rip and tear at him. Well, what about that puppy? How will that innocent puppy grow up?”

Lamb told court through his writing that he resorted to drugs, alcohol and crime as a coping mechanism.

He was also bitter about being robbed of his aboriginal background, with which he was hoping to reconnect.

“The baby is the wrong nationality, expendable. Send the child away, damn the damage this may cause,” he said.

In his 2010 writings, Lamb vowed to make a better life for himself. He outlined a series of steps he was taking, including a long list of treatment programs and facilities he had contacted about working with them upon his release from prison. He also expressed a desire to work with vulnerable, at-risk youth in the future.

“Throughout all a dim light, glimmer of hope, a feeling of worth. Ask for help, unload the shame. I’m wanting and worthy of a better life,” he concluded in the excerpt presented to court.

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