New evidence emerging from Pickton case

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – How might it have changed the jury’s decision – if at all? A lot of  evidence not revealed during Robert Pickton’s multiple murder trial has been released and we warn you, some of the details are disturbing.

As we’ve been learning, the judge in Pickton’s case made rulings that meant a lot of disturbing, some say
explosive, evidence was kept from the jury. In some cases, it was ruled the evidence had no conclusive link to Pickton. In other cases, it was to be left to any subsequent trial dealing with the 20 murder charges that have now been stayed.

Now that publication bans have been lifted, we’ve been given a look behind the curtain – the ground meat containing women’s DNA in freezers, clothing seized after a knife attack but left forgotten in a police lock-up for seven years, bones and teeth found in a cistern on Pickton’s pig farm, an apparent trophy shelf of items belonging to missing women.

The Crown had argued to include a bizarre sex doll found in Pickton’s bedroom near victims’ items, but the judge ruled it might repulse and prejudice the jury. The jury was also never allowed to see a tape of Pickton masturbating in his cell after his arrest.

Regardless of what the jury wasn’t allowed to hear, Pickton was convicted and given the maximum sentence for six counts of murder.

We’re also learning about a potential victim who said she got away. A sex trade worker who cannot be named claimed Pickton paid her for sex at the farm in 1997 only to slap a handcuff on her afterward. She says they struggled and he stabbed her, and she barely got away with her life.

A videotaped statement that Pickton gave to police after he was arrested is also likely to be released in the coming days.