It what must be one of the most monstrous crimes against the elderly ever in the history of humanity, a 77 year old elderly woman named Melissa Ann Shepherd was forced to travel 7 hours in shackles and stand, despite her clear inability to do so, in a Sydney, Nova Scotia, provincial court today.
The 77-year-old is accused of trying to kill her 75-year-old partner with powerful tranquilizers. There is little actual proof of this but the trial is going ahead next summer anyway. In the meantime she will be held in prison where she is not likely to survive until her trial.
Defence lawyer Allan Nicholson says his client suffers from age-related health problems and would have preferred not to make the seven-hour trip to Sydney in shackles but she was forced to anyway.
This kind of elder abuse is apparently a Nova Scotia tradition.
