Python owner charged in Canadian boys' deaths

Ottawa - Canadian federal police on Tuesday charged the owner of a python in the deaths of two young boys who were asphyxiated by the snake while they slept in 2013.

Jean Claude Savoie, 38, was accused of criminal negligence causing the deaths of the brothers.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Jullie Rogers-Marsh said: "This was a unique case in Canada and required consultation with experts familiar with African rock pythons."

The two boys, who police said were aged four and six, were attending a sleepover at a friend's apartment in the town of Campbellton, New Brunswick, when they were surprised by the snake on August 5 2013.

Police initially said the reptile had slithered into the second-floor apartment from an exotic pet store on the ground floor, but later determined that the African rock python had been housed in the apartment itself.

Its owner did not have a permit to own a dangerous, exotic pet.

He faces a possible life sentence, if convicted.