Father charged in killing of Winnipeg girl had tried to force abortion: court records

WINNIPEG — Court records show a man charged in the killing of his three-year-old daughter had tried to force her mother to get an abortion.

Police have said the girl, identified as Jemimah in court documents,was abducted from her mother at knifepoint on Wednesday. They said the girl was found a short time later inside a parked vehicle with stab wounds. She died in hospital.

Frank Nausigimana, 28, faces a charge of first-degree murder.

He was previously convicted of a 2017 assault against the child’s mother when she was pregnant.The parents were also in court earlier this year over a disagreement about custody arrangements.

Both Nausigimana and the mother are hearing impaired.

“He’s tried to kill my baby already once and he’s ashamed that me being deaf might be carrying his baby,” the mother wrote in an application for a protection order in 2017.

Court heard that Nausigimana had picked up the woman at a store in Winnipeg and drove her to an area to talk about the pregnancy. The two began to argue because Nausigimana wanted her to get an abortion.

“(I) asked her to come with me, go to the hospital about to remove the baby,” Nausigimana said in a written note to the court at the time. “But she refused to go to the hospital.”

Court heard that he pulled out a bottle with some sort of liquid and tried to force the woman to drink it with the intention of inducing a miscarriage. Nausigimana later told police he had researched how to cause a miscarriage and the liquid was a mixture of salt, water and vodka.

The woman, who had scratches on her face, went to hospital and the baby was unharmed.

She applied for the protection order at a hearing following the assault. “I’m afraid that potentially Frank will come after me again, so I’m trying to be very careful … I’d like to have the baby,” the mother said through an interpreter..

Not long after, the order was revoked at the mother’s request. She told court she’d forgiven him. She and the father went to the same church and she wanted him to be able to attend services.

“I will take care (of the) child alone, so please cancel the protection order,” the mother wrote in a note to the court.

Court also heard that Nausigimana came to Canada as a refugee from Burundi when he was a teen. He lost his hearing when he had meningitis as a child.

His mother moved to Ottawa and left him in foster care in Winnipeg. He remained in care until he became too old at 21. 

Nausigimana was described in court as intelligent, capable and a low risk to reoffend. He was sentenced to one year of supervised probation for the assault. 

Earlier this year, Nausigimana went back to court seeking joint custody and mutual decision-making for Jemimah. He said in court documents that the girl’s mother had stopped allowing him to see his daughter in January.

The mother, citing previous and ongoing domestic violence, contested the request. 

She told court she no longer wanted to be in contact Nausigimana and asked that a third party be in charge of their communications about their daughter. 

The mother did agree to Nausigimana seeing Jemimah every other weekend under supervision.

Nausigimana contested that plan in documents submitted to court in March. He also pushed back on the mother’s request for retroactive child support.

He is to be back in court on the murder charge July 16.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 9, 2021.

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press