WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse.

In the years leading up to the death of a 12-year-old boy in the home of his prospective adoptive parents, the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) had received at least a half dozen reports from people with concerns about possible abuse and neglect, an Ontario court has heard.

But the boy and his younger brother remained in the care of Brandy Cooney and Becky Hamber for over five years, from October 2017 to December 2022, when the boy was found emaciated, soaking wet and unresponsive in their Burlington home.

He died in hospital a short time later.

The women are now on trial, accused of the first-degree murder of the boy, known in court as L.L., and of confinement, assault with a weapon and failing to provide the necessaries of life to his brother, J.L. The boys’ identities are protected under a publication ban.

Both women have pleaded not guilty.

The judge-only trial in Milton began last month and is expected to continue into December.

No one from the CAS has testified yet about what steps it took to help the boys and the society is not on trial. But the case has raised questions about its involvement in the boys’ lives leading up to L.L.’s death.

The Indigenous boys were wards of the CAS of Ottawa.

Boys’ grandmother fought against moving the boys, court told

L.L. and J.L. were born in Ottawa about two years apart, and initially stayed in that city with their birth parents and grandparents before children's aid sent them to live with Heather Walsh and her family, testified Walsh, their longtime foster mom.

When the CAS bega