A Holyoke mother is scheduled to go before the parole board, where she is expected to seek release 10 years before her original sentence ends. She was convicted of forcing her young daughters to be raped by her boyfriend, saying it was “God’s will.”
Justina Talbot was sentenced to 35 to 40 years in prison on charges of child rape in 2001 following a jury trial in Hampden Superior Court when she was 38.
In 2007, the Supreme Judicial Court ordered she be resentenced due to the lifetime community parole attached to her original sentence, which the court stated was not appropriate. The judge sentenced her to life in prison with the possibility of parole and 20 years of probation.
After her original sentence, she wasn’t expected to go in front of the parole board until 2036, when she would be 73. Due to her resentencing, Talbot, who is currently living in MCI-Framingham, will have her first parole hearing at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
What happened
On a cold December night in 1998, a note left by a 10-year-old girl began unraveling the horrific case.
“I love you so much, but I just can’t take it any more (sic),” she wrote, and left the apartment as her mother was being beaten by her boyfriend.
The mother reported her daughters missing. When Holyoke Police found the girls, they reported the abuse.
The abuse began for one of the daughters four years before, beginning when she was 10. The younger daughter began being abused when she turned 8. Officials said the girls, who do not have the same last name as their mother, were sexually assaulted at least once a week.
Talbot would take the girls to the bedroom where her boyfriend, Fernand Daviau, would rape, sexually assault and force at least one of the girls to drink his urine. She told the girls it was “God’s will to prepare the children for their future husbands.” She also told the younger daughter it was “medicine” to cure bad memories of another man sexually assaulting her as a toddler.
But Talbot’s lawyer said she was a victim too.
The lawyer stated in 2001 that Talbot was unable to stand up to Daviau due to his beatings and only admitted to being abused by him after he was sent to prison.
The couple met at a Pentecostal church in 1990. Talbot thought Daviau was “kind and caring.” But over time, her lawyer stated, he became violent and emotionally controlling. He eventually stopped letting her go to church.
She also had severe diabetes that caused frequent blackouts. The girls often had to run to the neighbors to call an ambulance after finding her on the floor. And she had three son with Daviau, needing additional help from her girls while she was pregnant.
Starting at 5:30 a.m., the girls would begin their day with an hour of Bible study. They would then help with household chores and get the younger children ready for school.
After school, they would go to Daviau’s apartment to clean. At around 9 p.m., they would return to their mother’s to finish cleaning. They wouldn’t go to bed until 11 p.m.
Despite their good grades, the girls’ teachers began to worry. The older girl had been excused from sex ed classes, with her mother stating she was being taught at home. And the younger girl would tell sexually suggestive stories but deny anything when questioned.
“They were too terrified to say anything,” prosecutor Linda Pisano said.
Daviau previously claimed he was only doing what Talbot wanted.
“She wanted them to grow up,” he said.
Fernand Daviau’s parole hearing
Daviau appeared before the parole board for the first time in 2021, after postponing hearings in 2014 and 2019. During the hearing, Daviau and the parole board members discussed his intellectual disability, head injuries and being sexually abused by a priest when he was younger.
He said he “disagreed” with the acts but did not think he was doing anything wrong. He said he thought it was consensual.
“Mr. Daviau had a profound lack of empathy and understanding of the impact of his crimes,” the parole board wrote in 2022 when denying him parole.
He was encouraged to complete the Sex Offender Treatment Program and victim empathy. He is allowed to ask for another parole board hearing this year.
‘I could never imagine’
The oldest daughter told the court her mother should spend her life in prison. Still, she said, she loved her.
During Talbot’s resentencing in 2007, her oldest daughter appeared in court with her 1-month-old son. Once again, she said she loved her mother but could not forgive her and that she needed to continue to “atone for her crime.”
“I’m standing here today as a mother who would give her life to protect her son,” she said, according to the Republican. “I could never imagine putting my son through what she put us through.”
The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.
