Pickton interrogation video released

Last Updated: Monday, August 9, 2010 | 2:26 PM PT

CBC News

Video of a police interrogation with serial killer Robert Pickton following his 2002 arrest has been released publicly.

Video excerpts of a conversation between the Port Coquitlam, B.C., pig farmer and an undercover officer posing as his cellmate were made public Friday.

Their release follows the lifting on Wednesday of publication bans from Pickton's 2007 trial, after the Crown stayed the remaining 20 murder charges against Pickton.

The 60-year-old is serving a life sentence for the murders of six women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside between 1997 and 2002.

In the new batch of recordings released Monday, Pickton is shown under the bright lights of a tough interrogation, admitting to horrendous crimes.

Pickton was interviewed by several officers over the course of the 11-hour interrogation.

Initially, police do most of the talking, with Pickton denying any involvement or knowledge in the murders of women who went missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

For the first several hours, most of the talking Pickton does revolves around his life on the farm and stories from his childhood.

An artist's sketch shows Robert Pickton in the prisoner's box on the first day of his trial in B.C. Supreme Court on Jan. 22, 2007. (Felicity Don/Canadian Press)He does not admit to anything directly and appears relaxed during the interview, even putting his feet up during several portions.
However, when the third officer — lead investigator Staff Sgt. Don Adam — enters the interrogation room, Pickton appears cagey and tentative.
He starts to give Adam some information, admitting to several details, but retracts his statements immediately.
Pickton attempts to broker a deal with Adam, offering information or a confession in exchange for police taking down the fences around his pig farm.
Eventually, after being questioned repeatedly, Pickton admits police might find the bodies of "two — probably two, maybe three" women on his property.
He suggests it was bad police work that allowed him to go on for so long because officers simply couldn't catch him.
Pickton also echoes the statement he made to the undercover officer in the tape released on Friday, saying he got "too sloppy" and that's why police were finally able to arrest him.

Video

• 'Mass murderer' Serial killer Robert Pickton tells Staff Sgt. Don Adam, 'You make me more of a mass murderer than I am,' during an interrogation in 2002 Watch: 2:26
• Pickton's property During a 2002 interrogation, serial killer Robert Pickton tells Staff Sgt. Don Adam, 'If you wish to dig the whole property up, be my guest.' (Warning: graphic content) Watch: 5:14
• Pickton laughs Serial killer Robert Pickton laughs during a 2002 interrogation by Staff Sgt. Don Adam (Warning: graphic content) Watch: 2:01
• Pickton video released Video of a police interrogation with serial killer Robert Pickton following his 2002 arrest Watch: 2:54

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/08/09/bc-pickton-interrogation-tapes.html#ixzz0w9meO83f

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Full transcript of serial killer Robert Pickton's conversations with an undercover police officer

 

 

BY COMPILED BY CHAD SKELTON, VANCOUVER SUNAUGUST 6, 2010 1:13 PM

 

 

 

It was less than two weeks after police first entered Robert (Willie) Pickton’s Port Coquitlam pig farm with a search warrant that a young female member of the RCMP’s interview team, Const. Dana Lillies, began visiting the suspect on a Steveston construction yard where he was working with his brother.

Photograph by: File, Vancouver Sun

The full transcript of serial killer Robert Pickton's conversations with an undercover police officer planted in his cell were publicly released Friday morning. The full text of those conversations are below.

Warning: Some of the content and language may offend some people. Readers' discretion is advised.

Page 1 of 179

Full Transcript at The Vancouver Sun: http://bit.ly/aHg7sc

Pickton jurors never heard from sex-trade worker taken to the farm

Pickton jurors never heard from sex-trade worker taken to farm

 

 

BY LORI CULBERT, VANCOUVER SUNAUGUST 4, 2010 6:19 PM

 

 

 

The jurors at Robert (Willie) Pickton's trial never heard the testimony of a sex-trade worker who alleged the accused took her to his Port Coquitlam farm for sex, slapped handcuffs on one wrist and stabbed her nearly to death.

Photograph by: Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER — The jurors at Robert (Willie) Pickton's trial never heard the testimony of a sex-trade worker who alleged the accused took her to his Port Coquitlam farm for sex, slapped handcuffs on one wrist and stabbed her nearly to death.

"I was fighting him, I was, like, going backwards so I could get to this knife," the woman testified in 2003 at Pickton's preliminary hearing. "I was begging him to let me go, telling him I had a family.

"And then I leaped at him, I slit his throat... I remember him grabbing a rag and going, 'You f---ing bitch, you got me good,' and he put the rag on his neck. And then he had a big long stick and I remember just picking up plants, everything I could get a hold of and throwing it at him."

During that violent struggle in March 1997, the woman said she slashed Pickton's jugular vein and was able to escape, flagging down a passing car for help.

She had lost three litres of blood and had no pulse when she arrived at Royal Columbian Hospital with stab wounds to the upper chest, the abdomen, hands and arms. The woman, who was then 30, remained unconscious in hospital for four days.

Pickton, who also lost three litres of blood that evening, drove himself to Eagle Ridge Hospital, and was then transferred to Royal Columbian. The two stabbing victims were in separate operating rooms when a handcuff key was found in the pocket of Pickton's pants. It was taken to the woman's room and used to unlock the cuffs dangling from her wrist.

Pickton was charged with attempted murder, assault with a weapon and forcible confinement following the incident, but the charges were eventually stayed because the Crown considered the woman too unstable to testify in court at the time.

The stabbing that occurred 13 years ago predates the disappearance of all six women Pickton was convicted of murdering at his 2007 trial - and also predates the disappearance of 15 of the other 20 women he was accused of murdering.

However, the jurors were not allowed to hear the woman's story because the judge, B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams, ruled in late September 2006 — just months before Pickton's trial was to begin — that it was merely speculation that Pickton planned to murder and dismember her in the same fashion as the other women.

It was a huge victory for the defence, because the knife-fight survivor was the only Crown witness prepared to testify at Pickton's trial that she had been brutally attacked by the accused, but lived to tell about it.

Another startling revelation in the woman's story is that while Pickton was being treated in the same hospital that night, police seized his jacket, sweatshirt, T-shirt, jeans, underwear, socks and rubber boots. They were put in a storage locker and forgotten for several years until after his 2002 arrest in the missing women case.

When Pickton's clothes were tested in the RCMP forensics lab in 2004, a gruesome discovery was made — the DNA from Andrea Borhaven was on Pickton's rubber boots and DNA matching Cara Ellis was on his nylon jacket. Both women vanished from the Downtown Eastside in early 1997, just before the knife attack on the woman.

During the long search of Pickton's pig farm, police found an earring bearing Borhaven's DNA under the floor boards of his trailer; they also discovered several items linked to Ellis, such as her prayer card on a shelf in his slaughterhouse and her DNA on plastic sheet liners in a freezer. Pickton would later be charged with their murders, and they are among the 20 murder charges that have now been stayed.

However, the shocking revelation about the clothes was also kept a secret from the 12 jurors because it pertained to two of the 20 women who were not subject to the first trial.

During pretrial arguments, the Crown and defence agreed that Pickton and the woman stabbed each other severely on March 22, 1997, but they disagreed on who started the fight and why. And, therefore, also took opposite positions on whether the woman should be allowed to testify at Pickton's trial.

Crown attorney Michael Petrie argued that the woman's evidence was necessary because it helped prove who killed the six victims at the centre of the trial who, like the knife-attack survivor, were all drug-addicted sex-trade workers with a link to Pickton's farm.

"The biggest significant difference" between the woman and the others, Petrie argued before the judge, is that she survived to testify and the others did not. None of the 98 witnesses called by the Crown testified that they had been attacked by Pickton, and some insisted he was not violent at all.

Petrie wanted to use the woman's evidence, as well, to support the testimony of a key Crown witness, Andrew Bellwood, who told the jury that Pickton once confessed to handcuffing women before killing them.

The Crown also argued the woman's story pertained to one of the six women on the indictment - Brenda Wolfe - whose DNA was found on a handcuff key ring in a loft in one of Pickton's outbuildings.

However, defence lawyer Peter Ritchie maintained that the survivor, who he noted had a severe substance abuse problem and a criminal record that spanned two decades, attacked Pickton that night during a drug binge. Pickton, his lawyers argued, was just trying to control the woman when he put a handcuff on her wrist and tried unsuccessfully to attach it to something in his trailer.

Ritchie also told the judge that Pickton could have defended himself in a separate trial over the 1997 allegation, but it had been stayed and it wasn't fair to now lump it into the missing women "mega-trial." 

Paraphrasing Shakespeare, Ritchie told Williams that allowing the woman's testimony at Pickton's trial would be so unfair it would be tantamount to dropping poison into the jurors' ears.

In a written ruling following the heated pretrial arguments, Williams sided with the defence, deciding the knife-attack incident could not be considered similar to what happened to the other women because there was no proof she was to be killed and dismembered following the attack. (All six of the women Pickton was convicted of killing were dismembered, and at least three of them were killed by gunshot wounds.)

"I find that there is simply not anywhere near the required degree of similarity to permit the conclusion that it is likely that the same individual committed both the 1997 incident and the murders of the six women," Williams wrote.

Williams added his conclusion "may seem to offend common sense," but he was required to strictly follow the law. "To do otherwise is to imperil the fair trial rights of the accused," he wrote.

lculbert@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Authorities tight-lipped on Pickton. Appeal bid; Crown suggests killer might have had accomplice

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Crown suggests killer might have had accomplice

Shannon Kari, National Post Published: Thursday, March 18, 2010

Police and prosecutors are refusing to comment on arguments filed in the Supreme Court of Canada that suggest there is "considerable" evidence Robert Pickton did not act alone.

The expanded Crown theory, which will be put to the Supreme Court on March 25 when it hears an appeal by Pickton, states that he may have had accomplices.

Yet neither the Crown nor the special police task force that investigated the murders of more than two dozen women is willing to address the accomplice theory.

"We cannot speak to this as it is before the courts. There is the possibility of other trials," said RMCP spokeswoman Corporal Annie Linteau.

The spokesman for the criminal justice branch of the B.C. Ministry of the Attorney-General also declined to comment. "At this point, it is not possible to address the case in isolation from the appeal process," Neil MacKenzie said.

Pickton, 60, was convicted by a jury in 2007 of six counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of women lured from the Downtown Eastside section of Vancouver to his farm in Port Coquitlam.

The pig farmer is serving a life sentence and facing 20 other counts of first-degree murder, which are on hold pending the outcome of the Supreme Court hearing.

There have been suggestions that more than one person might have been involved in at least some of the murders.

Yet no one else has been prosecuted and the Crown stressed at the trial of Pickton that he was the sole suspect. "The Crown intends to prove that these murders of these six women were the work of one man, the accused, Robert William Pickton," said the prosecution in its opening address at the trial.

Now, in written arguments filed at the Supreme Court, the Crown says there are two equally valid ways Pickton could have been convicted.

"Pickton was the architect of these murders," the Crown states. In expanding on arguments first made in the B.C. Court of Appeal last year, it lays out an "alternate route to liability" that it says is "well founded" in the evidence.

There is "considerable and obvious" evidence that Pickton may not have acted alone, but as the person in charge of a "murderous joint venture," the Crown states. "The pool of evidence clearly left open the possibility that others were acting in concert with Pickton," it adds.

The Crown is permitted during a trial to put forward more than one way a jury can convict an accused. In the Pickton appeal, it is now arguing he either killed the women on his own or is guilty as a "coprincipal" in the murders.

There were never alternate theories suggested at the actual trial, though, said Peter Ritchie, who was lead defence lawyer at the lengthy court proceeding (Mr. Ritchie is not involved in the appeal).

"The Crown was adamant Pickton acted by himself," Mr. Ritchie said yesterday. "If there was a suggestion other people were involved, we would have defended the case that way," he said.

The defence pointed to alternate suspects during the trial, which were dismissed as "red herrings" by the prosecution.

"If the Crown believes there is evidence that others were involved, you would think an investigation would proceed with vigour," Mr. Ritchie said. "Instead, one is left wondering," he added.

skari@nationalpost.com

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2695171#ixzz0iVUij88V
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$10 million ‘a start’ to investigate women’s deaths, disappearances

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By LORI CULBERT, Vancouver Sun

March 4, 2010

There was cautious optimism Thursday in response to the federal government’s promise of $10 million over two years to address the issue of hundreds of missing and murdered native women in Canada.

“It’s a start, because five and 10 years ago, the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada never passed the lips of a single cabinet minister, that I’m aware of, over all those years,” said Ernie Crey, whose sister Dawn disappeared from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in 2000.

Thanks to the efforts of a group of vocal native women, many of them based in B.C., this issue has finally been pushed onto the public agenda, he said.

“But $10 million doesn’t strike me as a large amount of money given the magnitude of this issue,” said Crey, whose sister’s DNA was found on the Port Coquitlam farm of convicted serial killer Robert (Willie) Pickton.

There were few specifics in the budget speech about how the money would be spent, noting only that it could involve law enforcement and the justice system.

Vancouver East NDP MP Libby Davies, whose riding includes the Downtown Eastside where 64 women disappeared from 1978 to 2001, said the solution to this epidemic cannot come solely through “a criminal justice lens.”

It requires much more money being invested in the systemic issues that made many of the victims vulnerable in the first place: poverty, violence and homelessness, she said.

“It really concerns me about whether they are going to do anything substantive.”

Davies has long called for a public inquiry into Vancouver’s missing women, but she said that alone would likely consume the $10 million.

There have been 520 native women reported missing or murdered in Canada over the last four decades, according to the federally funded Sisters in Spirit report. B.C. is home to a disproportionately large number of those cases.

There have been at least 18 cases of missing or murdered women and girls over the last four decades along highways in northern B.C., collectively dubbed the Highway of Tears.

Highway of Tears coordinator Mavis Erickson also dismissed the $10 million as a small amount of money, but said she hoped it would be spent on a commission of inquiry into unsolved cases of missing and murdered B.C. women, so lessons can be learned and changes can be made to keep women safe.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women criticized Canadian governments and police for not doing enough to prevent or investigate violence against aboriginal women and girls.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, said the government had been slow to respond to the UN’s damning report, but was “elated” Thursday to finally see recognition of this issue from Ottawa.

Phillip said the $10 million should go to organizations that have fought to raise awareness about unsolved cases of missing and murdered women, such as Walk4Justice, the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, and Sisters in Spirit.

lculbert@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

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DNA of Sharon Abraham found on Pickton farm

Police to recommend Pickton be charged for deaths of six more women

The DNA of 32 women has been seized from Pickton’s Port Coquitlam farm.

By LORI CULBERT, Vancouver Sun

October 29, 2009 3:02 PM

Sharon Abraham with her daughters in 1990.

Photograph by: Teresa Hardy, submitted

METRO VANCOUVER -- Twenty years ago, Sharon Abraham was a “confident, outgoing” woman and the doting mother of two beautiful daughters, her former friend says.

But the RCMP has now confirmed that ongoing testing of evidence seized from serial killer Robert (Willie) Pickton’s farm has found the DNA of Abraham and another missing woman, Stephanie Lane.

The development means the DNA of 32 women has been seized from Pickton’s farm — half the names on a police poster of 64 women who vanished from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside from 1978 to 2001.

Pickton was convicted of killing six of those women, and is charged with killing another 20 — but any second trial is on hold pending the appeal of his first trial.

Abraham and Lane join four other women, Yvonne Boen, Jackie Murdock, Dawn Crey and Nancy Clark, whose DNA police previously said was found on the farm.

RCMP Const. Annie Linteau said the Missing Women Task Force is preparing a report to Crown counsel recommending charges against Pickton for those six women, even though police have been told verbally by the Crown that the charges will likely never be laid.

Linteau said police are still sending the report to conclude their investigation, and to be prepared in case a new trial against Pickton is ordered by the Supreme Court of Canada, which will hear his appeal in March.

“We are sending all the findings of our investigation to the Crown for their consideration, even though we have been told by Crown and the public has been told by Crown they would not proceed with additional charges,” Linteau said.

Crown spokesman Neil Mackenzie said prosecutors will look at the police report when it arrives, but reiterated if Pickton loses his appeal then no additional charges will be taken to trial against the former Port Coquitlam pig farmer, who is serving a life sentence.

The Crown’s decision has disappointed many families.

Very little has ever been published about Abraham, but her friend Teresa Hardy contacted The Vancouver Sun to share memories of her former roommate in happier times.

The two women lived together in 1989, after meeting in a Lower Mainland transition house. Abraham, who had a toddler and a baby, was starting her life over after leaving an abusive relationship.

“She never drank when she was with me, never did drugs. We didn’t go to bars. We did things with the kids,” Hardy said. “She always made sure the kids had diapers. She wasn’t out buying cigarettes and beer. She always made sure the rent was paid and there was food in the house.”

Hardy last saw her friend in 1990, when Abraham and her girls had their own apartment, and was shocked to learn her friend disappeared in 2000.

“The three of them were such a happy family unit,” Hardy said. ... I’d like to tell her kids some day that their mom was pretty cool. It breaks my heart because she loved them so much."

lculbert@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/Police+recommend+Pickton+charged+deaths+more+women/2159939/story.html

Six more charges likely for Pickton

Recommendations going to prosecutors to pursue cases of missing women

Suzanne Fournier, The Province: Thursday, October 29, 2009 9:58 AM

New RCMP evidence has police recommending charges against Robert Pickton in the cases of six more missing women (clockwise from top left): Yvonne Boen, Dawn Crey, Stephanie Lane, Nancy Clark, Sharon Abraham and Jacqueline Murdock.

Photo Credit: Handouts, RCMP

The RCMP are recommending that six new first-degree murder charges be filed against convicted serial killer Robert Pickton.

"We're in the process of sending a report to Crown counsel for their consideration. We're recommending six more charges related to Robert Pickton and the Port Coquitlam property," RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Annie Linteau told The Province Wednesday.

Linteau noted that all six women appear on the police task force's official list of 63 missing women. Pickton, now 60, was not charged in connection with the death of these six, who went missing between January 1997 and March 2001.

Linteau listed the women as: Yvonne Boen, born on Nov. 30, 1967, who was last seen March 2001; Dawn Crey, whose birthday was Oct. 26, 1958, and was last seen in November 2000; Sharon Abraham, whose date of birth was Sept. 15, 1965, and went missing in December 2000; Stephanie Lane, born on May 28, 1976, who went missing Jan. 10, 1997; and Jacqueline Murdock, born Jan. 28, 1971, and was last seen in August 1997.

Those five women, all of whom were mothers, went missing from Vancouver's drug-infested Downtown Eastside The sixth woman, Nancy Clark, who was born July 29, 1966, was last seen Aug. 22, 1991, in Victoria.

The news that the RCMP will finally recommend charges was cathartic to some of the women's family members.

Yvonne Boen's son, Troy Boen, 23, exploded in anger and relief when told of the RCMP's decision.

"About f---ing time, but why did it take them so long?" demanded Troy, who was the last member of his family to see his mother alive.

"My mum deserves her day in court . . . I'm glad the RCMP are finally saying Pickton should be charged with my mum's death." Troy, the eldest of Boen's three sons, attended many gruelling days of Pickton's long trial in B.C. Supreme Court.

In December 2007, Pickton was convicted of counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Marnie Frey, Georgina Papin, Sereena Abotsway, Brenda Wolfe and Mona Wilson. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for 25 years.

Troy Boen was also present when three B.C. Appeal Court judge's upheld Pickton's conviction last June 25 in a 2-1 split decision that also gave Pickton the automatic right to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.

That appeal is expected to be heard this spring. If the appeal is dismissed, B.C.'s Criminal Justice Branch has made it clear that it will not proceed with an additional 20 murder charges, which were severed in August 2006 from the first trial.

Linteau said that the RCMP is recommending another six new charges be laid now "out of an abundance of caution." "We are carrying on with the assumption there could be further judicial proceedings and we are putting everything that could be done back on the table, rather than being unprepared if further trials are required." Should Pickton's appeal be upheld by Canada's top court, prosecutors would move quickly to ask for a new trial on all 32 murder charges.

Linteau said families of all six women have been told in the past that their loved one's DNA was "tied to the Pickton farm," but they won't be officially notified yet of possible charges "because it is up to the Crown to decide whether to proceed." A massive RCMP-Vancouver Police Department task force began searching the ramshackle Pickton pig farm in Port Coquitlam in February 2002.

On Feb. 22, 2002, Pickton was charged with the first two murders of what would become a lengthy list of 26 homicides.

The vehicle-strewn farm, full of human and animal burial sites, was examined by experts down to bedrock, and Pickton soon gained the notorious reputation of being Canada's worst accused serial killer.

Debra Benning was a longtime friend of Boen who believes Pickton should be "held accountable" for Yvonne's death.

"In my heart, I know she's gone, but I think everyone should know if Pickton was responsible," said Benning.

Ernie Crey, a Sto:lo Nation leader, has fought tirelessly for justice for his troubled sister Dawn, whose DNA was confirmed on the Pickton farm in 2004 but whose name was left off the list of those who Pickton would be charged with murdering.

"There's never emotional, psychological or spiritual closure for any of the family members of the missing women, we're always left with the history and the loss of our loved ones, but I am still seeking legal closure," said Crey.

Jacqueline Murdock, a Carrier First Nation mother of four, is still mourned by her large family, said her aunt Elizabeth Murdock, 68, in an interview from Fort St. James.

"It's good if they charge that man finally with Jackie's death. We all want answers."

© Copyright (c) CW Media Inc.

Pickton faces 6 more charges

By Suzanne Fournier, Canwest News Service
October 29, 2009 4:22 AM

Serial killer Robert Pickton should be charged with killing six more women who disappeared from B.C., RCMP said yesterday.

"We're in the process of sending a report to Crown counsel for their consideration," said RCMP Cpl. Annie Linteau. "We're recommending six more charges related to Robert Pickton and the Port Coquitlam property."

Linteau said that all six victims appear on police's official list of 63 missing women.

Pickton, 60, has never been charged in connection with the death of these six women, who went missing between January 1997 and March 2001.

The women are: Yvonne Boen, 33, who went missing in 2001; Dawn Crey, 42, who went missing in 2000; Sharon Abraham, 35, who went missing in 2000; Stephanie Lane, 20, who went missing in 1997; Jacqueline Murdock, 26, who went missing in 1997; and Nancy Clark, 25, who went missing in 1991.

Clark was last seen in Victoria. The other five, who were all mothers, went missing from Vancouver's drug-infested Downtown Eastside.

In December 2007, the B.C. pig farmer was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Marnie Frey, Georgina Papin, Sereena Abotsway, Brenda Wolfe and Mona Wilson. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for 25 years.

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

How does society think about murdered, missing women?

THE CANADIAN PRESS

EDMONTON – A University of Alberta PhD student says society has made progress, but has a long way to go when it comes to how we think about missing and murdered women.

Amber Dean is studying the lives and deaths of women involved in prostitution, drugs and other high-risk, vulnerable lifestyles to see ‘‘what they can tell us about the way our society is organized.’’

Dean says she became interested while living in Vancouver and noticed how the way the missing women were described changed over time.

She said at first, there was a lot of talk about how they were involved in prostitution and their addiction to drugs.

But Dean said at the conclusion of the trial of Robert Pickton, there was a lot of emphasis put on the victims and an attempt to tell ‘‘at least some aspect’’ of their stories.

Dean said her thesis also looks at the pictorial representations of the Vancouver women by a group of forensic artists on the website of Project EDAN – which stands for Everyone Deserves a Name.

Organized by Wayne Leng, the site features somewhat idealized portraits of the slain and missing women, including Georgina Papin of the Enoch Cree First Nation near Edmonton.

Pickton, of Port Coquitlam, B.C., was convicted in December of killing Papin and five other women and sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years.

He faces trial next year on another 20 counts of first-degree murder.
‘‘The artists were upset because the pictures in the missing posters seemed to present the women as more criminal than victim in a way because they look like mug shots,’’ she said.

‘‘So, they’ve attempted to create portraits that, in their words, are gentler and softer.’’

Pickton appeal hearing set for next March 25 in nation’s top court

Thursday, September 17th, 2009 | 1:50 pm

Canwest News Service

VANCOUVER – The Supreme Court of Canada has set a tentative date of next March 25 to begin hearing the appeal of serial killer Robert (Willie) Pickton.

Pickton, 56, was convicted on Dec. 9, 2007, of six counts of second-degree murder involving women who disappeared from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside: Mona Wilson, Brenda Wolfe, Sereena Abotsway, Andrea Joesbury, Marnie Frey and Georgina Papin.

He still faces trial on another 20 counts of first-degree murder, but the Crown does not plan to proceed on that second trial if Pickton’s convictions are upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Still, the 20-count indictment was in court today and the second trial has been set to begin Sept. 13, 2010.

The date was set anticipating it may take months for a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada on Pickton’s appeal.

Last June 25,the B.C. Court of Appeal denied Pickton’s bid for a new trial, but a dissseting judgment by one judge of the three-judge panel gave Pickton an automatic right to appeal his case before the nation’s highest court in Ottawa.

In a 2-1 split decision, Chief Justice Lance Finch and Richard Low turned down Pickton’s bid for a new trial, largely rejecting many of the defence arguments.

The Crown, Pickton’s defence had argued on appeal, pursued a theory during the trial that Pickton had acted alone, but as a result of a question by the jury during deliberations switched gears and suggested he could have had an accomplice.

Pickton’s defence also alleged the trial judge, B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams, erred in his response to a jury question.

However, Justice Ian Donald disagreed with his colleagues, saying that Williams made “a serious error of law” and that there was a “miscarriage of justice.”

Donald did not think it was fair for the Crown to introduce the possibility Pickton acted with someone else so late in the trial.

“I view the Crown’s behaviour as scrambling to recover ground,” he wrote.

The confusion could have led to the jury’s verdict of second-degree murder, instead of first-degree, Donald wrote.

“Despite the body of evidence against Pickton, the jury deliberated over nine days and reached the somewhat curious result of second-degree murder.”

The Appeal Court also released a ruling on a separate appeal by the Crown.

The three justices unanimously agreed with the Crown that Williams made several errors in law, included severing the 26 counts into two trials; not allowing a key witness to testify; and prohibiting certain similar fact evidence from being admitted. Most details about this evidence are protected by a publication ban.

Still, they said, “there would be no useful purpose” to remedy these errors by ordering a new trial on 26 counts of first-degree murder if Pickton’s six convictions are upheld and he continues to serve his life sentence.

Pickton was initially charged in February 2002 with two counts of first- degree murder after police raided his Port Coquitlam farm. He was eventually charged with 27 counts.

The trial judge stayed one count involving a Jane Doe, a woman whose identity was never identified.

Pickton’s first murder trial began on Jan. 22, 2007.

nhall@vancouversun.com

© 2009 Kelowna.com. All Rights Reserved.

Pickton to appeal pig farm murders to top court

By Keith Fraser, Vancouver Province
June 26, 2009

VANCOUVER — A day after he lost a bid to overturn his six murder convictions, serial killer Robert Pickton has decided to appeal his case to Canada's highest court.

Pickton's lawyer Gil McKinnon confirmed on Friday that his client will "soon" file an appeal to be heard in the Supreme Court of Canada.

The 59-year-old former pig farmer from the Vancouver suburb of Port Coquitlam was given the automatic right of appeal because the B.C. Court of Appeal ruling upholding the convictions on Thursday was a split decision.

McKinnon said the appeal would be based on the dissenting opinion of B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Ian Donald. He did not say when the appeal might be heard in Ottawa.

In a lengthy ruling, the majority opinion of the B.C. Court of Appeal found that the evidence strongly suggested that Pickton was the killer or one of the killers on all of the murder counts and rejected his appeal arguments.

Donald admitted that the Crown had a "powerful case" but found that errors by the trial judge amounted to a miscarriage of justice and called for a new trial.

McKinnon represented Pickton at the nine-day Appeal Court hearing earlier this year.

In December 2007, a B.C. Supreme Court jury found Pickton guilty of six counts of second-degree murder after being found not guilty of six counts of first-degree murder. Pickton lured the women, all sex-trade workers from Vancouver's drug-plagued Downtown Eastside, to his pig farm and murdered them.

Pickton was initially charged with 26 counts of murder but the Crown has said it will not proceed with the remaining 20 counts if the murder convictions are upheld.

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B.C. Appeal Court denies appeal for convicted serial killer Robert Pickton

Sunny Dhillon, THE CANADIAN PRESS
June 25, 2009, EDT

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Convicted serial killer Robert Pickton's appeal on six counts of second-degree murder has been dismissed by B.C.'s high court, but a potential second trial hangs in the balance as the former pig farmer's legal odyssey trudges on.

In a two-to-one decision, the B.C. Court of Appeal Thursday rejected claims from Pickton's defence that the trial judge made numerous significant errors while instructing the jury.

"The judge acted correctly in providing the jury with instruction that embraced the law . . . , " Justice Richard Low wrote in a decision that sets the stage for Pickton's case to potentially be heard in the Supreme Court of Canada.

"In my opinion, there was no procedural error," Low said.

In a second ruling, this one on a Crown appeal, the judges unanimously agreed that if Pickton is successful in a Supreme Court referral, then the Crown could proceed with either a trial on six counts of first-degree murder, or the 26 counts Pickton originally faced.

The court also placed a conditional stay on any new trial if and when Pickton's defence team decides to take the case to the high court, saying there was no need for the "enormous demands" of another trial if Pickton's conviction isn't overturned.

The ruling essentially preserves the Crown's right to proceed to trial on a charges of first-degree murder on either six or 26 charges.

Pickton was arrested in February 2002, setting off a massive search of his property in Port Coquitlam, B.C., where investigators found body parts, blood samples, fragments of bone and the belongings of victims.

He was originally to face 26 charges but six months before the trial began, the judge divided the case in two, proceeding with just six first-degree murder charges in January 2007 after deeming the case to be too large for a jury to digest.

The court decisions disappointed Susie Kinshella, whose sister Wendy Crawford is among the outstanding 20 murder charges.

"It's just unbelievable when you sit in that courtroom and you hear the evidence that's gone on and that plays in your mind," she said, adding that all she wants is justice for her sister and recognition of her death.

Before Thursday's decision several family members had said they actually wanted Pickton to win his appeal, so a new trial could be heard into all 26 deaths.

The B.C. Crown had said it wouldn't proceed with the remaining 20 murder charges if Pickton lost his appeal, because he was already serving a life sentence

Lynn Frey, whose stepdaughter Marnie Frey is among the six women Pickton is convicted of killing, said she was also hoping for a new trial of first-degree murder on all 26 counts.

Frey, who has been fighting to reclaim her stepdaughter's remains from the massive collection of evidence in the Pickton case, said she's no closer to that goal after the decisions.

"When somebody you love passes away you get to go to their gravesite, you get to grieve the day that they passed away," she said.

"You do the proper steps as you grieve. This way, there are no proper steps. We're grieving every day."

All 26 of the missing women on the Pickton indictment were young and had vanished between 1995 and 2001 from the Downtown Eastside.

Most were sex-trade workers, addicted to illegal drugs and a disproportionate number of the victims were aboriginal.

One element of the Crown's appeal was that the trial judge erred by severing the 26 counts into two separate trials. The Crown said the move hindered their ability to use similar-fact evidence - similarities between the different murders - to show Pickton had a scheme to kill prostitutes from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

The appeal court agreed, ruling that the trial judge committed extricable legal error in ordering that 20 counts of first-degree murder be removed from the indictment.

The judges left the door open for the Crown to drop a second trial, if Pickton loses at the high court.

"I am persuaded that the Crown's position on this issue is sound," wrote Chief Justice Lance Finch.

"If Mr. Pickton remains convicted of second-degree murder on those six counts after all appeals are concluded, there would be no useful purpose in a retrial on those same offences as charges of first-degree murder," Finch said.

B.C. Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie if Pickton chooses not to go to the high court, or loses there, that will be the end of the legal proceedings.

"The Crown's position has been and remains that if Mr. Pickton exhausts all of his available appeals on the six convictions and remains subject to the sentence of life in prison with no parole eligibility, the Crown will not proceed on the remaining 20 counts," MacKenzie said.

"We understand that it's a decision that some family members are disappointed with. However, the Branch has to keep in mind that any additional convictions beyond the six that he's received will not result in any further penalty or punishment being imposed."

That possibility of a second trial still exists, with the split B.C. Appeal Court decision meaning Pickton's lawyers have the right to take the case to Canada's highest court.

Pickton's lawyer, Patrick McGowan, said no decision has yet been made on how to proceed.

"It's going to take some time for defence counsel to consult and review these materials and decide on the course of action that we're going to take," McGowan said just before leaving the courthouse to share the news with his client.

Pickton was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in the killings of Frey, Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Andrea Joesbury, Georgina Papin and Brenda Wolfe.

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Pickton paradox: serial killer's successful appeal might mean real justice

Published Wednesday June 24th, 2009
Sunny Dhillon, THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER, B.C. - It's a subversive twist to one of the most complex, convoluted legal proceedings in modern Canadian history: the friends and family of some 20 alleged murder victims, most of them siding - for the moment, at least - with the lawyers who represent serial killer Robert Pickton.

The gut-wrenching paradox, rooted in the former pig farmer's conviction in December 2007 on just six counts of second-degree murder, has left them with a difficult choice: another long struggle toward justice for their loved ones versus the gratification of seeing legal closure.

The B.C. Court of Appeal will rule Thursday on appeals from both Pickton's defence lawyers and the Crown. Pickton's counsel is appealing his convictions, arguing - among other things - that the trial judge made mistakes in his instructions to the jury.

The Crown has launched a counter-appeal of the judge's decision to split the 26 murder charges originally laid against Pickton into two separate trials. Crown lawyers say they won't pursue a second trial if the six original murder convictions are allowed to stand.

For those who want a verdict in the deaths of the remaining 20 women, it all boils down to the lesser of two evils.

"We would hate to see Pickton actually win his appeal, but we want him to - only because that is the only way we foresee the other 20 girls getting justice," said Lori-Ann Ellis, whose sister-in-law Cara Ellis is among the outstanding cases.

Cara Ellis was 25 when police say she was last seen in January 1997.

Dianne Rock was nearly one decade older, 34, when the mother of five vanished in October 2001.

Her sister, Lilliane Beaudoin, said it's not easy pulling for Pickton's defence team, but she believes it's her only choice.

"This way, at least I have some kind of hope that there's going to be a second trial and that my sister's case will be in the second trial," Beaudoin said.

"It's sad to say. Usually I would go for the Crown counsel, but not in this case."

Beaudoin said while having the convictions tossed out would undoubtedly be difficult for the families of the six women involved, it may be equally difficult for the families of the 20 women to be left in limbo.

"We need the justice that they received," she said.

Pickton was convicted in December 2007 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in the killings of Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Andrea Joesbury, Georgina Papin, Brenda Wolfe, and Marnie Frey.

For Frey's stepmother, Lynn, there's no question whom she's pulling for.

"I definitely root for the 20," she said. "Even if I hadn't known those people personally, if I hadn't met them at the trial, I would have thought the same thing.

"It's totally unfair. They need accountability, they need justice and they need their day in court, just like anybody else."

Frey, who's been fighting to reclaim her stepdaughter's remains from the massive collection of evidence in the Pickton case, said while a second trial would delay that quest, it's a sacrifice she'd be willing to make.

"It is a no-win situation," she said. "If they said we're going to have another trial, then I'll suck it up and wait for the next trial ... the pain that they're going through is atrocious."

Not everyone is as ready to see the case go to trial for the second time.

Sarah de Vries disappeared in April 1998, one month shy of her 29th birthday, and is one of the 20 women on the list for a possible second trial. Her friend, Wayne Leng, said though he's conflicted at times, he doesn't really want the court proceedings to go that far.

"Pickton can't get any more time than he's already gotten," Leng said. "He's going to be in jail for life."

Leng stressed that he is 100 per cent behind the families hoping for a second trial. He simply isn't convinced that more court proceedings would provide any greater sense of closure for the loss of his friend.

"They've got the guy," he said. "They've nailed him. . . . I don't know how I would feel any different with him absolutely being found guilty of her murder."

For Beaudoin, however, it's important that the circumstances that led to her sister's death be part of the public record.

"This is why I want a trial for my sister," she said.

"My sister is gone. I want the man who supposedly has done this to her to be accountable for it. You just don't press charges of first-degree murder against a man and then not go forward."

Pickton was arrested in February 2002, setting off a massive search of his property in Port Coquitlam, B.C., where investigators found body parts, blood samples, fragments of bone and the belongings of victims.

The Crown is appealing Pickton's acquittal on six first-degree murder charges, but Crown prosecutor Gregory Fitch has said he would prefer to see the second-degree murder convictions stand and Pickton simply remain in prison, his legal saga over.

Fitch did express concern about the possibility of the appeal court denying Pickton's appeal while at the same time granting that of the Crown, which could have the unintended effect of requiring a new trial the Crown doesn't want.

Should that happen, Fitch said he would ask the court to stay the order for a new trial.

Pickton's defence lawyers told the Appeal Court that there was a lot of confusion among jury members on the question of whether Pickton acted alone.

Lawyer Gil McKinnon said that confusion only got worse after the jury asked a question of the trial judge six days into deliberations.

"At least one or more jurors seemed to be having difficulty on whether Robert Pickton was the sole shooter of the three women," McKinnon said in late March, referring to the murders of Wilson, Abotsway and Joesbury.

The women's severed heads were found on Pickton's farm. Each woman had been shot.

Six days into jury deliberations, Justice James Williams changed his instructions to the jury, saying he had been "not sufficiently precise" and "in error" in three paragraphs of his original charge.

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