The recent trial of a Saint John man convicted of stabbing his two sons to death last year has left many people reeling, searching for answers about how such a tragedy could happen and how to prevent anything similar.
Roman Kamyshnyy, 46, was sentenced last week to two life prison terms, to be served concurrently with no chance of parole for 25 years, after a jury found him guilty in June of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of the boys, aged 10 and 17.
Most people “can’t even fathom” a parent killing his or her own child, said domestic violence expert Peter Jaffe, a psychologist and researcher based in London, Ont.
But as many as 30 children across Canada are killed by a parent every year, he said, citing a study of more than 1,600 cases over 50 years.
About half of these child homicides, known as filicides, occur in situations of intimate partner violence, said Jaffe, professor emeritus at Western University and director emeritus of the Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children.
This is “often when a woman leaves an abusive relationship, and her ex-partner kills the children as an act of revenge,” he said.
“The male is angry at his partner for leaving the relationship, and the one way he can hurt her most is to harm the children.”
N.B. highest in Atlantic for domestic violence homicides
A study released earlier this year found New Brunswick had the highest number of domestic violence-related homicides in Atlantic Canada between 2012 and 2022,
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