Canadian Press (Toronto) — The stepmother of Randal Dooley — the fatal victim of one of the most horrific child abuse cases in Canadian history — must serve 18 years in jail before she can apply for parole, a judge ruled Friday. Marcia Dooley’s husband Tony — convicted of second-degree murder alongside his wife last month in the seven-year-old’s death — will spend 13 years behind bars before he can apply for parole, Superior Court Justice Eugene Ewaschuk decided.

Judge Ewaschuk called Tony Dooley, 36, a “coward” for “ignoring Randal’s plight as Marcia Dooley’s whipping boy” and derided 32-year-old Marcia Dooley as “Randal Dooley’s cruel and evil stepmother”. The couple sat together, their heads hanging low, as Ewaschuk pronounced their fate. Marcia Dooley — who seemed to show no emotion throughout the three-month trial — finally did so Friday, biting her lip and choking back tears. She wasn’t alone; many spectators in the packed courtroom wept when they heard Judge Ewaschuk’s pronouncement.

Prior to the sentencing, Crown attorney Ritz Zaied argued that the Dooleys deserved maximum time in prison. “These two people should never be able to walk freely among us again,” Zaied told the court. “They should be forced to serve a very long, long sentence for the cruelty they inflicted on this little boy.”

Zaied said considering the average human being lives for 80 years, Mr and Mrs Dooley’s punishment should reflect the fact they robbed their son of 73 of those years — and made his last one a living hell.

“He will never taste his first victory on the soccer or baseball field; he will never experience his first kiss from a girl,” Zaied told the court. “He will never have the joy of seeing his children being born, nor will he be able to die surrounded by his loving family.”

The night of his death, Marcia Dooley plunged her unconscious stepson into a cold bath and desperately tried to revive him so she and her husband wouldn’t have to take him to the hospital, Zaied said. “Tony Dooley said, ‘Pay him no mind — Randal just wants attention,’ and turned out the bathroom light and walked away,” Zaied said. “He turned out the light on his son’s life.”

Tony Dooley’s lawyer Mara Greene argued that her client was not the principal abuser and should only have to serve between 12 and 15 years. “This is a person who is without a criminal record, who has not displayed violence toward his other children,” Greene said. Zaied argued it was imperative for the judge to send a clear message: parents who abuse their children won’t get away with it.

“If you break the sacred trust of a child and kill a child in the brutal, sad, horrifying way Randal was killed, you will face life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 to 25 years,” she said.

Raquel Burth, the boy’s biological mother, said in an impact statement read Friday that she’s still haunted by Randal’s murder and the details of how he was treated. At one point during the trial, court was told how Marcia Dooley — angry with Randal’s chronic inability to keep food down — forced the boy to eat his own vomit. “Every time I try to eat, I think of the vomit he was forced to eat,” Burth said in the statement. “He died worse than a dog being hit by a vehicle.”

Zaied had pleaded for a sentence strong enough to quell public outrage over the case, which was as strong as ever Friday as observers, some wearing buttons that bore Randal’s picture, lined up for hours trying to get into the sentencing hearing.

“This community has cried buckets of tears for Randal,” Zaied said. “They should find some comfort in his abusers being sentenced for the living hell they put him through.”

Burth, who now lives in England, said she was trying to give Randal a better life by sending him to Canada from Jamaica in 1998 to live with his father and his new wife. A few months later, he was beaten to death. Along with a grisly tapestry of scars and bruises, a post-mortem on Randal’s emaciated, 40-pound body found 13 broken ribs, a lacerated liver and a tooth in his stomach. Medical experts said Randal — whose battered body was found in his brother’s bunk bed on September 25, 1998 — died of a brain injury likely caused by repeated shaking. A coalition of community groups has called on the Ontario government to launch a public inquiry into Randal’s murder. Ontario’s chief coroner, James Young, said a decision on whether to hold an inquest will be postponed until any possible appeal is filed. The Dooleys have 30 days to launch an appeal.