Paris Bennett's mother has forgiven him for raping and stabbing sister, 4, to death: 'I can’t give up on him'
A devastated mother, who lost her daughter in 2007 after her son sexually abused and killed her, has forgiven the criminal. Paris Bennett is serving 40 years behind bars in a Texas prison for sexually assaulting and killing 4-year-old Ella in 2007. Though Bennett as a 13-year-old raped the little girl before stabbing her 17 times, their mother Charity Lee has pardoned him.
Bennett had convinced their babysitter to go home before executing his evil plan. Ella was sleeping when he abused, tortured and then killed her. The victim was covered in blood on the night of February 5, 2007. The boy’s semen was found on Ella as well as on the bed. Now in her new memoir 'How Now, Butterfly?: A Memoir Of Murder, Survival, and Transformation', 46-year-old Charity has revealed that his son did not stab Ella in a frenzied attack, but instead tthe stabs “were slow and methodical, not frenzied, not an uncontrollable rage. Not all were deep”.
Also, before calling 911, the teeanger called one of his friends and discussed the incident six minutes. He told the dispatcher, “I accidentally killed somebody." And when the person on the other side of the call said, “You think you killed somebody?" Bennett replied: “No I KNOW I did. My sister...I feel so messed up." Bennett had watched "hours of violent porn" before carrying out the brutality on his sister.
Though Bennett was found guilty and sentenced for his crime, Lee said she has forgiven him. She also visits him on a regular basis, although he once tried to harm her. “My son is a psychopath. I can’t help him. That may not matter in the long run. What may matter is I can’t, not at this point, give up on him either. I love my firstborn with as much intensity as I have since the day I found out I was pregnant with him,” she mentioned in her book, which ends in 2011 - the same year when the grieving mother started the ELLA foundation.
The foundation’s website says its “mission is to aid those who have been affected by violence, mental illness, and/or the criminal justice system. To that end, we promote education which fosters an understanding of mental illness to combat discrimination and stigma. We provide support to trauma survivors to foster healing and recreate meaning. We advocate for mental health and criminal justice reform to affect positive change in our community.”
Five years after the horror, Lee delivered another son, Phoenix, in 2012, who is “a happy, affectionate, intelligent, stubborn and opinionated” child. The mother said she has told her youngest one about his brother and also allows him to speak with Bennett over the phone. “Critics of mine like to disparage me for allowing Paris to speak to Phoenix. They tell me what a horrible mother I am for allowing the child who murdered my child to speak to my other child. I am setting an example for Phoenix. An example of how unconditional love and forgiveness look and behave,” Lee wrote.