Adoptive Mother Sentenced to Five Years for Child Cruelty  

Today, a sixty-three-year-old woman was sentenced to five years imprisonment for child cruelty. Reports are that between January and July of 2017, Anke Doehm, the adoptive mother of thirteen-year-old Faye Lin Cannon, willfully neglected the minor and subjected her to injury to her health. Doehm had adopted four female minors from China and took them to live with her in the United States, before migrating to San Pedro with her and her late husband. However, in 2017, the then, thirteen-year-old Faye died while in Doehm’s care. It was later confirmed that the minor had been malnourished, as well as physically and sexually abused. Doehm appeared before Justice Derick Sylvester today, who, after considering the aggravating and mitigating factors, handed down a five-year sentence with effect from march fourth, 2024 when she was found guilty. These factors included, in his view, a lack of remorse displayed, a lack of accountability, the neglect of the child and a failure to provide adequate meals and physical abuse inflicted by Doehm’s husband. Sylvester also noted that Doehm required psychological help and must be considered a danger to children in society. As a result, she must also enroll in every rehabilitation program at the prison, and she is not eligible for parole until after serving half of her five-year prison term. Doehm was initially charged jointly with her husband, David Doehm, however, he took his life before the case came to trial. Regarding Doehm’s medical condition, a recommendation was made that she must return to Cancun for follow-up treatment. Justice Sylvester took note of this and reassured Doehm that, according to CEO Virgilio Murillo, the Belize Central Prison facilitates medical treatment for prisoners and should a prisoner require outside treatment, arrangements can be made.