Most of the publication bans lifted in Pickton case
Posted August 4, 2010 1:39 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEW WESTMINSTER (NEWS1130) – B.C. Supreme Court judge decided most of the publication bans that were imposed on court materials used in Robert William Pickton’s case will be lifted. Members of the media will now have access to some of the evidence in the twenty murder charges that have been dropped by the Crown today.
Several publication bans will remain in place to protect potential witnesses and undercover investigators who were involved in this case.
Media lawyers were weighing in with their arguments in favour of lifting the bans in a New Westminster court room this afternoon. The legal arguments were rather thick and lawyers have spent much of the afternoon trying to sort out what can and can’t be made available, if a ruling ever does come down. Lawyers were asking for the publication bans put on the case to be lifted, given Pickton’s legal options have essentially run out.
The convicted serial murderer was denied a new trial by the Supreme Court of Canada last week, and a public inquiry into the case might be launched pending the decision of B.C. Attorney General.
The publication bans went into effect eight years ago, after a strong media focus on the case made some question whether Pickton could get a fair trial with the amount of scrutiny that went into this high-profile case.
