Murray Wood: Regina's top cop busted out of the force
Murray Wood says it would have been impossible for Farooq Sheikh to continue as police chief in Regina. Now, he says the...
Kevin Goforth’s 15-year sentence has been upheld by the Saskatchewan appeal court.
Goforth had been found guilty in the starvation death of a four-year-old girl in the care of his family in 2012 and the near-death of her two-year-old sister. He was charged with manslaughter and of unlawfully causing bodily harm.
In a decision released on Oct. 5, the appeal court said Goforth tried to argue the judge, “had failed to consider the degree to which he was criminally responsible for the older child’s death and because she had failed to consider his diminutive position in his household as a mitigating factor. He also argued that his sentence was disproportionate to the sentences imposed on other offenders in similar circumstances.”
The court ruled it was not persuaded the judge had erred in law or principle, or that the sentence was unfit in the circumstances.
The four-year-old girl died in August of 2012 after being rushed to hospital; she died after being taken off life support.
According to the trial judge, the girl and her younger sister hadn’t been fed properly for three to four weeks and neither Kevin Goforth nor his wife, Tammy, sought medical attention for the girls.
After the Goforths’ initial trial, Kevin was sentenced to 15 years in prison and Tammy was given a life sentence with no chance of parole for 17 years.
Goforth initially was found guilty during a trial in 2016, but appealed the sentence. It had made it’s way all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada and his sentence was upheld.
