Greater than a 12 months after the police chief in Saint John, New Brunswick, introduced a evaluate of his officers’ conduct within the case of two males wrongfully convicted of homicide, there’s no signal of the promised report.
Chief Robert Bruce stated he had ordered a “complete evaluate” of the investigation that resulted in Robert Mailman and Walter Gillespie serving lengthy jail sentences for a 1983 homicide they didn’t commit.
Saint John police spokesman Workers Sergeant Matt Weir stated final week he has no timeline for when the findings will probably be made public.
In the meantime, Mailman — who has terminal liver most cancers — says he thinks he’ll die earlier than he sees the evaluate or receives an apology from the police.
The evaluate was introduced eight days after New Brunswick Court docket of King’s Bench Chief Justice Tracey DeWare exonerated the boys and stated that they had been victims of a miscarriage of justice. Earlier, federal Justice Minister Arif Virani had ordered a brand new trial citing proof that referred to as into query “the general equity” of their prosecution.
Bruce stated he had commissioned Allen Farrah, a retired senior RCMP officer, to “perform an unbiased evaluate solely centered on the investigation” by the Saint John police. Farrah is the proprietor and sole worker of the investigative consulting agency Clear-Path Options, Inc., based mostly in Hanwell, N.B.
Get day by day Nationwide information
Get the day’s high information, political, financial, and present affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox as soon as a day.
Reached by e-mail, Farrah stated he wouldn’t be commenting on the Mailman-Gillespie evaluate and directed questions again to Saint John police.
The courtroom doc famous that Saint John police had given a complete of $1,800 — along with resort and relocation prices — to a 16-year-old who testified in 1984 that he had witnessed the homicide of George Leeman in Saint John. The funds weren’t disclosed in the course of the trial. The witness, John Loeman Jr., later recanted his story to his personal lawyer, to a journalist, in two letters and to a federal Justice Division lawyer trying into Mailman and Gillespie’s case in 1998.
“This case was a shame,” James Lockyer, founding director of Innocence Canada, instructed reporters exterior the courthouse final 12 months after the 2 males had been acquitted. “It was merely a case the place the ends justify the means from the police perspective.”
With recordsdata from The Canadian Press’ Hinda Alam
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Source link