Andrea Giesbrecht appealing conviction for concealing infant remains

The woman convicted of concealing the remains of six infants in a Winnipeg storage locker is appealing her conviction.

Andrea Giesbrecht was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison in July. With time already served factored in, Giesbrecht will spend seven years and 10 months in prison.

Giesbrecht's lawyer, Greg Brodsky, said he's filed a notice of appeal and will be applying for bail for his client within the next two weeks.

Brodsky said the notice includes 41 grounds for appeal.

"There's 41 points to argue so the appeal will be somewhat complex," Brodskysaid Wednesday. "It's a difficult case."

The 43-year-old was convicted in February of hiding the bodies of the infants in a U-Haul storage locker she rented.

The remains were found Oct. 20, 2014 by employees at the facility, after the woman failed to pay her bill.

At Giesbrecht's sentencing in July, Judge Murray Thompson said her "moral culpability is extremely high.

"She bagged each of the bodies, sealed them or encased them in cement or powder, all in an effort to contain the smell of human decomposition and decay," said Thompson.

The judge pointed to Section 243 of the Criminal Code, explaining the law against disposing of infant remains is to ensure that newborn deaths can be investigated. By concealing the bodies, Thompson said Giesbrecht thwarted the ability of police to determine whether the infants' deaths occurred before or after birth.

In Giesbrecht's appeal, Brodsky says he'll argue the bodies were being saved in the storage locker, not concealed.

"The judge was mistaken in finding that she was disposing of the bodies by keeping them in a locker," he said. "We say that she was saving the bodies.

"You have to conceal by disposing of them, is the law. She didn't dispose of them, she was saving them."

Brodsky expects the appeal to be heard in about a year.