Remaining murder charges stayed in Pickton case
Posted August 5, 2010 6:18 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEW WESTMINSTER (NEWS1130) – It is a big day for the families of the twenty women believed to have perished at Robert William Pickton’s farm. Twenty first-degree murder charges against Pickton have been stayed by a B.C. judge Wednesday afternoon.
The drop of charges means several sweeping publication bans that have been put on this case will now be lifted. From now on, media can report on some of the evidence surrounding the twenty charges against him. However, several publication bans remain in place. Those are to protect potential witnesses and undercover investigators who were involved in this case.
Pickton’s appeal was rejected last week after the the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Pickton’s guilty verdicts for killing six women.
Some of the families of the twenty missing women say they have been let down because they were denied an opportunity to learn what happened to their loved ones. Sandra Gagnon, whose sister disappeared from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in 1997, says she’s not looking forward to giving the bad news to her sister’s daughter. “I promised my niece Deborah who was 12 and half years old then… I said, ‘Deborah, I am going to do everything on my part to find Mom and find out who took her.'”
Gagnon says the only good thing she can take away from the judge’s decision is that she won’t have to suffer through the horrific details of another trial.
A public inquiry into the case is expected, pending the decision of the B.C. Attorney General.
