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Wendy

Jan 28, 06 - 8:05 PM

Robert Pickton goes to trial

VANCOUVER - The world will be watching and for once, this city is not looking forward to being in the spotlight.

Four years after his arrest, and more than a decade after dozens of women began disappearing from Vancouver's streets, accused serial murderer Robert William Pickton finally goes to trial on Monday.

Mr. Pickton is charged with 27 counts of first-degree murder. He is alleged to have lured women from Vancouver's drug-riddled Downtown Eastside to his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, a suburb, from 1995 to 2001. They were never seen again but painstaking efforts were made to collect pieces of their remains, including miniscule samples of DNA, from the Pickton farm.

Police and forensic scientists spent years putting together a case against the 55-year-old bachelor, who was once known to neighbours and customers as "Uncle Willy." For years, Mr. Pickton sold pig meat from his farm direct to friends and local butchers; he and his brother, David Francis Pickton, frequently hosted pig roasts on another property nearby, inside a shed called the Piggy Palace.

After William Pickton was apprehended and accused of murder in February, 2002, fears were raised that pigs sold from his farm may have consumed human remains.

Prosecutors and members of Mr. Pickton's defence team spent months in pre-trial hearings, held inside a courtroom in New Westminster, another Vancouver suburb. That process was completed last autumn. Next week, should Mr. Pickton enter a plea of not guilty, lawyers will begin to argue before a judge the admissibility of evidence they hope to enter during the trial. That process is expected to last at least two months. Opening statements will be made, and the Crown will begin its case against Mr. Pickton.

The public can then expect to be fed a steady diet of gruesome, macabre details. Interest in the case is intense and far-reaching. Dozens of reporters from the Vancouver area, Washington State, and even abroad had to formally apply for court access months ahead of Monday's trial date.

Relatives and friends of Mr. Pickton's 27 alleged murder victims will also be in attendance; they want to know more about how various police investigations were conducted. Members of the Vancouver police and the RCMP were criticized for their work leading up to Mr. Pickton's arrest.

At least 50 women, many of them sex workers, vanished from the Downtown Eastside before the first murder charges against Mr. Pickton were laid. However, in 1997, he was charged with the attempted murder of a prostitute at his squalid pig farm. It was alleged he stabbed the woman in the stomach. The charge was eventually stayed and the disappearances continued.

All will soon come out, a prospect some courtroom aficionados have anticipated with relish. Others, such as unscrupulous U.S. filmmakers, jumped the gun and have begun to exploit the Pickton case.

American-based horror film schlockmeister Ulli Lommel has already shot a movie based on the "shocking true story." A synopsis for the low-budget film, called Killer Pickton, describes in gruesome detail how the central character--"a pig farm maniac" named Billy -- disposed of his victims.

Wendy

Jan 28th, 2006 - 8:07 PM

Re: Robert Pickton goes to trial

Attempts to locate Mr. Lommel yesterday were unsuccessful. Reached via telephone at her home in Boston, one of the film's actors refused to comment on the project and hung up when asked how she was cast. The movie was completed in October and is expected to be released on video and DVD, not in public theatres.

The trial, meanwhile, will last at least one year and it certain to be the subject of both scrutiny and distress.

Criminal cases that involve allegations of serial murder are always sensational, even in Canada, where rules of disclosure are strict and where pre-trial publicity is contained.

Sometimes they bring shame. People here still shudder at the notoriety local serial child killer Clifford Olsen brought to the community. In 1982, after negotiating with the Crown in a series of cash payments to his wife in exchange for self-incriminating information, the Vancouver native pleaded guilty to 11 counts of murder.

Local shopkeepers, municipal workers and court officials are bracing for the media onslaught. This month, the City of New Westminster held information sessions for residents and business owners, sharing with them plans to control an expected surge in vehicle traffic and parking demands.

The Pickton trial will do nothing to enhance their community's image, even though the alleged murders took place elsewhere. Vancouver's image may also be tarnished. The city prides itself on its natural splendour, and tourism is a major industry here. But there are fears that violent crime, much of it drug related, is already scaring visitors away.

Two weeks ago, the Chinese consulate in Vancouver posted a travel alert on its Web site, warning tourists from China to watch their valuables and passports when roaming the city. Soon people will be hearing and reading about pigs, missing prostitutes and Mr. Pickton, and for a long time to come. His trial is welcome; justice must be done. But the daily reports will be dreadful.

Wendy

Mar 2nd, 2006 - 8:30 PM

one murder charge against pickton dropped

One charge dropped in Pickton case
Thu Mar 2, 2006 6:52 PM EST

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A Canadian judge tossed out one of the 27 murder charges against accused serial killer Robert Pickton on Thursday, but prosecutors said their case has not been weakened.

The charge had differed from the other murder counts filed against the Port Coquitlam pig farmer because the female victim's name was never determined by police and she was listed only as "Jane Doe" in court documents.

The remaining 26 charges of first degree murder involve named victims who were among nearly 70 sex trade workers and drug addicts who disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighborhood.

Prosecutors are reviewing the decision that the wording of the "Jane Doe" charge in Pickton's indictment did not meet needed legal standards, and have not decided if they will appeal or attempt to refile a reworded charge.

Prosecution spokesman Stan Lowe said the ruling does not hurt the rest of the case against Pickton, who has been in custody since his arrest in February 2002.

"The ruling has not in any way affected the available evidence in this case," Lowe said in an interview.

Pickton's jury trial is not expected to begin until later this year so there is a publication ban on all evidence in the case, including that involving the murder count that has been dropped.

Pickton, 56, has pleaded not guilty to the 26 charges with named victims, but did not enter a plea on the "Jane Doe" charge because his defense attorneys argued that portion of the indictment was legally defective.

Pickton is the only person charged in connection with the case.

Police have said that DNA from 31 missing women was found during a more than year-long search of Pickton's farm in the Vancouver suburb.

Katty

Jun 30th, 2006 - 8:54 PM

Re: Robert Pickton goes to trial -- FINALLY!

Pickton trial slated for January
Canadian Press

New Westminster, B.C. — The jury trial of accused serial killer Robert Pickton will begin Jan. 8, 2007.

Justice James Williams set the date in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday.

The jury selection process will begin Dec. 9.

Judge Williams said the process will start with a jury pool that could be in the hundreds, which will be broken down into groups before the formal jury selection begins Dec. 11.

The judge said it was important for the accused, the lawyers and the community at large to set a date.

Judge Williams said Mr. Pickton has been in custody since his arrest in 2002 and by the time the trial begins will have been in custody for almost five years.

Judge Williams addressed possible concerns by members of the community who he said might believe the case has already taken far too long.

"It's an unusually large and complicated matter," he said. "No one is served by a hasty trial."

Mr. Pickton is accused of killing 26 women who vanished from the streets of Vancouver's drug-infested Downtown East Side over several years.

The Crown and defence have been making applications to the court on evidence that will be presented to the jury since January.

Judge Williams said he had hoped all the applications would be done by the end of June with a trial starting in the fall.

"It has taken considerably longer than anticipated," Mr. Williams said, noting the applications will continue under a publication ban into October.

Wendy

Aug 12th, 2006 - 8:27 AM

Pickton Trial split in two

VICTORIA - Prosecutors have to decide which group of murders to proceed with first in the case against Port Coquitlam farmer Robert William Pickton, after the judge decided hearing evidence in all 26 charges is too much for one jury.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams ruled Wednesday that in the largest serial murder case in Canadian history, six murder counts should be heard together and the remaining 20 referred to another trial. Pickton is charged with murdering 26 women, most of whom worked as prostitutes in east Vancouver, between 1995 and 2001.

Geoffrey Gaul, director of legal services for the Attorney General's criminal justice branch, declined to comment on why the six victims were selected, citing a ban on publication of evidence in the case.

"[The court] has divided the counts and it has ordered that six of those 26 counts should be tried together, and the remaining 20 counts should be tried at a later date," Gaul told reporters in Victoria. "It will be for the prosecution to decide whether the six proceed first, or whether the 20 counts that have been severed will proceed first, and that's a decision that we will make in the coming days."

Gaul said the judge was concerned about the jury's ability to digest all the evidence in 26 murders, and his decision does not reflect on the strength of the Crown's case in any of them.

Pickton's defence lawyers asked for the trial to be divided, and prosecutors could seek to divide it further by splitting up the 20 counts, he said.

"All 26 counts remain very active," Gaul said.

Earlier this year, the judge threw out a 27th murder charge involving an unidentified victim, and Pickton pleaded not guilty to the other 26.

Pickton has been in jail for four years, during which time investigators spent months searching and sifting soil on his farm property looking for evidence.

The judge has been hearing evidence since February to determine if it is admissable to a jury, and once jury selection is complete the trial is expected to begin in earnest in 2007.

Gaul said the ruling to divide the case likely means it will take longer than if all 26 counts were heard together. Prosecutors will decide which counts to proceed with first, and then await the outcome of that trial before deciding how to proceed with the rest, he said.

Wendy

Sep 10th, 2006 - 1:44 PM

Robert Pickton

VANCOUVER -- The Crown has confirmed that accused serial killer Robert Pickton will face trial on six counts of first-degree murder when a jury begins hearing the case in January.

Crown prosecutor Mike Petrie says Pickton will be face two trials for the murders of 26 prostitutes who disappeared from the Downtown Eastside over several years.

Last month, a judge ruled the case needed to be separated and suggested trying six counts separately.

The Crown said then it hadn't decided how to proceed, but Friday Petrie announced the case will proceed according to the judge's recommendation.

A second trial on the remaining 20 charges will go ahead sometime later.

Pickton was charged almost five years ago and his trial was expected to take two years, but now that the case has been broken up, it's expected jurors will only have to sit through one year of testimony.

SurreyGirlz

Feb 6th, 2007 - 12:42 PM

Re: Robert Pickton goes to trial

As sex workers in BC we have chosen to refer to the trial as the 'Missing Women's trial'. Please stop using his name and notarizing him. This ******* has recived enough attention.
xxx
A

Wendy

Feb 10th, 2007 - 8:29 PM

Re: Robert Pickton goes to trial

February 10, 2007

Since the trial of accused serial killer Robert Pickton began last month in British Columbia, a troubling question has been raised by some trial watchers.

Has the public shown a lack of regard for his alleged victims because most of them were prostitutes and drug addicts? It is a disturbing question that is worth exploring.

The heinous nature of the murders Pickton is accused of committing makes his trial difficult to follow. The goriest true crime books, serial killer movies and reality documentaries can't possibly match the gruesome details coming out of the New Westminster, B.C. courthouse. Even Canadians with strong stomachs are sickened by this case.

"For the most part, the circus surrounding the first week of the trial is gone," observed Matt Kieltyka, who's covering the trial for 24 Hours Vancouver. A University of British Columbia journalism professor cautioned that media coverage of the trial, which was more extensive when the trial opened, may lead to "Pickton trial fatigue."

Understandably, most Canadians have a difficult time absorbing the details of Pickton's alleged depravity. A series of polls taken last month by Decima and the University of British Columbia found that the majority of Canadians want the media to tone down the gory details of the case.

A retired Victoria resident echoed the views of countless Canadians when he said that it's been abundantly clear for years that there had been bodies cut up on this farm, but that he didn't need to keep hearing about it.

There are, however, observers of the trial who worry about public apathy when it comes to the victims. They fear that because most of the victims were prostitutes or drug users from Vancouver's poor, downtown east side, there is little sense of urgency surrounding the trial. The relatively weak presence of public observers in the courtroom has reinforced these fears.

The women whose body parts were found at Pickton's pig farm lived on the margins of society. When they began disappearing, the police response was inadequate, insisted the Toronto Star's Rosie DiManno, leaving Pickton to prey on more women.

The victims' "lack of value," DiManno writes, "was pivotal to the laggard police investigation that permitted the killings to continue apace over a period of many years, even as family and friends and activists pleaded for attention from authorities."

Other observers have reached equally troubling conclusions. Alan Young, a law professor at Osgoode Law School in Toronto, has contrasted the Pickton trial with the heavily publicized trial of serial sex killer Paul Bernardo.

Public interest in the Bernardo trial was stronger, Young argues, because Bernardo and his accomplice wife Karla Homolka "were young, attractive, upwardly mobile and . . . their victims were also young and attractive."

Based on his observations of media coverage and the small public audience at the Pickton trial, Young has concluded that "the majority of Canadians feel . . . that the victims in this case are less worthy than other victims and that is why it's not as interesting."

The verdicts of DiManno and Young -- and others who've expressed similar opinions about the Pickton trial -- suggest most Canadians don't especially care about the victims in this case.

That's a harsh generalization, to be sure, and not necessarily always accurate. Some people care a great deal about the victims. For others, the occasional doses of media sensationalism and grisly nature of the crimes have proven too much for them.

Overall, though, public sympathy for the victims has never seemed particularly strong, and there have been few efforts to humanize them or understand their plight. These women stare at us from aging police mugshots and faded family photographs like ghosts, but their stories are seldom told and the details of their lives are buried in obscurity. The murdered women, in this case, are in danger of being forgotten by the public.

It would be a mistake to suggest that Canadians are unique in this regard. When a serial killer went around murdering dozens of African American children and adolescents in Atlanta between 1979 and 1981, few people outside of that city paid much attention to the ghastly crimes. Had the youths been white and middle class instead of black and poor, it would have been a dramatically different story.

In Ciudad Juarez, a poverty-stricken Mexican border town, more than 400 young women have been savagely murdered since 1993. Only small, dedicated groups of local activists and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have shown much interest in apprehending the person or persons responsible for the crimes.

The women of Vancouver's downtown east side, the African American children of Atlanta, and the young women of Ciudad Juarez all had certain things in common. They were poor. They were women and youths. Some had dark skin. And their lives end

Wendy

Feb 10th, 2007 - 10:03 PM

Re: Robert Pickton goes to trial

One thing that really irritates me more than a barbed wire tampon is the way the media is handling the Robert Pickton trial (for those of you unaware of Robert Pickton he was a pig farmer from Port Coquitlam, B.C. who is believed to have tortured, raped, and murdered over 70 women and used their bodies to feed his pigs. The majority of these women were Aboriginal and worked on the street as sex workers). If you didn’t know about Robert Pickton and picked up a paper and started reading you would think that the article was describing a horror movie. Not real life events.

Many of these articles focus on the gore of this case and not the victims. When the victims are described in the news it’s always as “drug addicted prostitutes” not women, mothers, daughters, people with hopes or dreams – none of that, they’re just hookers. And by calling these women “just drug addicted prostitutes” the writer is subtly suggesting – either deliberate or accidental – that the rape, torture, and killing of these women may be "understandable" even "justifiable" because their “just drug addicted prostitutes”. And as most of society believes, prostitutes are not people, for they are only 2 steps above pedophilia. Which is why society has removed themselves from viewing this trial as a murder case involving Canadian women to viewing it more like they would a Steven King movie, with fresh popped popcorn sitting in their laps.

No other serial killer trials (like those of Paul Bernardo, David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy, or Dennis Rader) has the media ever shown so much blatant disregard for the victims like the Pickton trial has. In no other trial would the victims be presented as “asking for it” or expendable. Their stories would be heard, their pictures plastered all over the pages, the accounts of grieving families would be written about extensively. People would become outraged, they’d demand justice. But that’s not the case when the victims are “just prostitutes”.

If they weren’t “just prostitutes” the media probably wouldn’t have skirted over the fact that friends, family, and community workers were delivering warnings about Pickton almost 20 years before police finally started investigating in 1998 and that if the police had given this case the same priority they would have given if the victims were, say, nurses, then a lot of these deaths would have been prevented

Lynne Tansey

Feb 15th, 2007 - 7:11 AM

Re: Robert Pickton goes to trial

This really gets to me...the only time sexworkers are mentioned is when many die & usually at the hands of a serial killer. They therefore parade them as victims & the true human rights issues of sexworkers never get the press they deserve. Not that I am not terribly pained to hear news of sexworker deaths..of course I am..I have been a victim of brutal crimes myself..but between those times & news..the real crux of the rights of sexworkers, their value to society & the respect they deserve are passed by. Instead the public are exposed to wording like `drug riddled/disease infested/child porn-prostitution & pimps & sex tourism...issues that are part of but not all about the industry itself..they are like red-herrings thrown into the arena of hatred against all those within.
I have spent so much wasted time just going through these issues with some people BEFORE we can even get to basics about what the industry is all about, why its here & what is needed to move on. People focus as they do on cases like this..they become cult issues & films based on the suffering & pain of others, to amuse, entertain & fascinate the masses. This initself is unhealthy, not just for sex workers but for humanity as a whole. decades later they still talk about the `Jack the Ripper`..they love those names. The `Yorkshire Ripper` followed, names like slasher, ripper etc..bad terminology that sensationalise the killer, not the victims, they are just another name, wheras the killer gets the publicity & infamy...unless `She`(one of the victims) is seen as pure or innocent...the rest are disregarded outside of our feelings of initial horror.
I had not heard of this guy..it is not international news, at least over here it has`nt been mentioned.
Films or documentaries of sexworkers are not on the agenda, at least unless it is a sad, moral stance which is victim laden & even then few want to see or hear about them.
If they caqn make films about successful, powerful women who have contributed to society why not then about sexworkers..who have genuine things to say & have lead diverse & interesting lives..which, who knows could change the public views on the way they see sexworkers.
I know there are huge problems within the industry but unless we give sexworkers the respect & `ear` they deserve, societies as a whole will not move on & in fact it will get worse.
Sex murders & offending is esculating & here in UK rape is four times more than any other crime, in its growth...sex offenders are everywhere- people have become afraid to let their children out, women are under threat everytime they leave their homes & some don`t even have to leave their homes before they are attacked or abused-yet despite exposure of sex offenders names.which just adds to the fear & creates internal anarchy, they are still growing numbers.
Why? Because we still cannot ourselves as families or communities accept any responsiblity for the future sex-offenders, we seperate ourselves from `the knowing & understanding` of human sexual behaviour. These offenders do not crawl out of some woodwork in some far-flung ghetto. They are somebodies son, husband, father, brother etc. Their behaviour comes from mainly childhood experiences which many little understand. Few if any are born to kill, & I disagree with anyone who thinks so. They are moulded by the families & societies they live in..they everywhere.
So a total re-think into our own human sexual understanding should by now be taking top stage & talked about regularly...at home, in schools, at work & in our social scenes. & not just in a way of `keep away` or `this is what you should not do`..a much broader concept needs to be adorned into our very psyches.

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