Drug-smuggling Millhaven prison worker found dead

David MartinA manager at a maximum-security federal prison in Ontario who was caught smuggling a substantial quantity of drugs last year, in a scheme apparently orchestrated by the Hells Angels biker gang, has been found dead. David Martin, 47, of Kingston, Ontario died Sunday, August 21. An obituary published by his family said only that Martin died “unexpectedly at home.” Kingston Police would not answer questions. Asked if detectives are investigating Martin’s death, spokeswoman Joanne Geike told me that she could not provide any information.

[Read more...]

Share

Sailor faces second court martial over alleged penis swirling

A sailor on a Canadian warship will face a second court martial over an allegation that he dipped his penis in another sailor’s glass of chocolate milk after an argument between the two men in a mess hall of the ship (read the court docs after the jump). Master Seaman W.L. Boyle was acquitted of the charge of acting in a “disgraceful manner” by a military judge, Cmdr. Paul Lamont, despite testimony from another sailor who said he watched Boyle unzip his pants and insert his penis into the glass and “swirl it around.”

[Read more...]

Share

Police snap legal leash on released sex predator Mark Bedford

Police in Kingston, Ontario took extraordinary measures with the release from prison of an Internet sex predator considered one of the most prolific ever caught in Canada. A legal leash (read full document after jump) was slapped on Mark Bedford (inset) when he walked out of penitentiary a free man after three years behind bars. Bedford is forbidden from using a computer that can access the Internet, along with 22 other strict conditions.

[Read more...]

Share

Prison service paying off staff who sued

Joyceville Institution signMore than 360 people who worked at a federal prison in Kingston, Ontario, will get at least $1,000 each after a precedent setting six-year legal fight over a breach of their privacy. “This has been a long odyssey,” Christopher Edwards, the Kingston lawyer who represented staff in a lawsuit, said Wednesday.

[Read more...]

Share

An outlaw biker, makeshift barbell and a big lawsuit

Fat MexicanCorrections Canada says it’s not legally liable for injuries suffered by an imprisoned outlaw biker because he was exercising with a makeshift barbell built with bags of water. The claim is contained in a statement of defence filed last week in a Kingston court in response to a lawsuit launched in May by Carl Thomas Bursey, who is behind bars at Kingston Penitentiary for drug dealing. The Bandidos outlaw bike gang member (symbolized by the Fat Mexican wielding a gun and a machete) is suing the federal government for $5 million, claiming he suffered a crippling injury because he got substandard medical care from prison staff after he hurt himself while exercising.

[Read more...]

Share

Witness to murder: Untold story of 25 year old killing

Perhaps the most heartbreaking thing about the murder of Heather Fraser is the revelation that the 16-year-old girl could have survived her encounter with sexual sadist Jamie Giff. In my research for this story, I uncovered new details about the sequence of events on that cold Monday, January 28, 1985, in Smiths Falls, a small town in eastern Ontario on the historic Rideau waterway. Listen to this snippet of interview with Annette Rogers, who was Giff’s 17-year-old girlfriend at the time. She has never spoken publicly before about her role in helping Giff elude capture in the weeks after the murder. That day, she was in hiding, because Giff had threatened to kill her:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Rogers’ dramatic account of her violent relationship with Giff, and his threats to kill her once he is free from prison, unfold in the complete story (after the jump). Giff, who has been behind bars for 24 years, is once again seeking parole. He has appeared twice previously before the National Parole Board (full parole records) and both times, in 2007 and 2009, he was denied passes that would allow him to leave prison without an escort for up to 72 hours. Giff is now incarcerated at minimum-security Pittsburgh Institution, a penitentiary with no fences or armed guards, in Kingston.

[Read more...]

Share

Lahey's laptop had pix of 8 year old boys: Document

CBC did great work, breaking this story, by ferreting out the background document filed by investigators in order to get a search warrant for Catholic Bishop Raymond Lahey’s (above) computer and other digital devices.

[Read more...]

Share

Mass murder in black and white

The document above is an inventory of mass murder.

It’s the charge sheet or ‘information,’ the document filed July 23, 2009, in a Kingston, Ontario court by police, setting out the criminal charges against three people from Montreal: Mohammed Shafia, 56, his wife Tooba Mohammed Yahya, 39, and their son, Hamed, 18. Each is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and four counts of conspiracy to commit murder, alleging that they consorted together to kill four other members of their family who were found dead in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston. The car was found early on the morning of June 30, 2009.

Kingston Police held a news conference today to outline the charges. They confirmed some facts: that Rona Amir Mohammed was Mohammed Shafia’s secret first wife, not his cousin and they confirmed that they are considering the allegation that this is an honour killing. But police left some key questions unanswered:

How did the women die? They won’t say.
Were they dead before the car went into the water? They won’t say.
When did the car go in the water? They won’t be specific.

This is hard to fathom, hard to believe even, until you see it in black and white, the claim that a father and mother, aided by a son, hatched a devious plan to kill their three teenage daughters, Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, and Mohammed, 50. Read previous posts on the case for the background.

More exclusive details that offer some insight into the allegation that this was an honour killing will be available here Friday, July 24 and at the Kingston Whig-Standard website.

Share

A prison psychologist's 'love affair with an inmate'

The Correctional Service of Canada still won’t say anything publicly about the embarrassing apparent tryst between one of its prison psychologists and a murderer, but police have put it in black and white. Investigators have spelled out in an eyebrow-raising court document – in language befitting a gossip magazine expose – exactly what they think Erin Danto, a psychologist at Frontenac Institution in Kingston, Ontario, was up to with escaped killer Andrew Wood.

[Read more...]

Share

Drunk driver wants his mommy

If a man who represents himself has a fool for a client, and a fool for a lawyer (as the old saying goes), how about a man whose mommy is his lawyer?

[Read more...]

Share