What a terribly sad story. It's positive in a way because Mary did end up with some kind of life after all the abuse she suffered as a child.

But it's tragic that she never got justice, and that she had to fight public opinion that failed to account for the adults who made her early childhood torture.

As to abuse in the juvenile "justice" system, I'm afraid that's entirely ordinary. The conditions in youth prisons are routinely horrific; yes, even in the developed world.

I'll never forgot the time my foster son's social worker told me that if he had been institutionalized instead of coming to live with us, he would "probably" have been sexually abused.

She said that with a straight face and a neutral tone that felt altogether out of place on a sunny Montreal morning.

Lest anyone think Mary's story is somehow ancient history.