A photograph in Ivan Henry’s appeal court file shows him in a police lineup in 1982 being restrained by three police officers, one of whom has him in a headlock, while other men in the lineup are laughing.
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This 1982 Vancouver police lineup photo, with an officer holding Ivan Henry in a choke hold, was submitted to the B.C. Court of Appeal, which has overturned his convictions. (CBC)
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This is the police line-up that used to identify Ivan Henry as the culprit responsible for a string of violent sexual assaults in Vancouver in the early 1980's. Police officers are physically restraining Mr. Henry and his lawyers argue that this unfairly pointed to him as the number one suspect in the case, prompting victims to point to him as the man who attacked them. —Handout. Globe and Mail.
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CANADA
COLOMBIE-BRITANNIQUE
VANCOUVER
ACQUITTÉ APRÈS 26 ANS EN PRISON
27 octobre 2010
http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/colombie-britannique/2010/10/27/002-Ivan-Henry-acquitte.shtml
La Cour d'appel de la Colombie-Britannique a acquitté Ivan Henry des 10 chefs d'accusations de nature sexuelles pour lesquels il a été emprisonné pendant 26 ans. Le jugement a été rendu mercredi matin à Vancouver.
En 1983, l'homme de 63 ans avait été reconnu coupable de trois chefs d'accusation pour des viols sur des femmes entre mai 1981 et juin 1982 dans trois quartiers de Vancouver, et de sept autres chefs d'accusations de nature sexuelle.
Il a toujours clamé son innocence.
Selon les juges de la Cour d'appel, plusieurs erreurs ont été commises lors du procès.
Par exemple, la Couronne a admis que des preuves n'avaient pas été divulguées à l'accusé, qui se représentait seul. Le juge de première instance aurait aussi erré dans ses instructions aux jurés.
Devant la presse, M. Henry a remercié ses avocats et les juges de la Cour d'appel. Il a aussi exprimé sa reconnaissance aux membres de sa famille. Il a expliqué que ceux-ci l'aident à apprivoiser les changements qui sont intervenus dans la société pendant les années, près de trois décennies, pendant lesquelles il a été en prison.
« Je crois en l'honnêteté »,
a mentionné le sexagénaire qui a ajouté ne pas ressentir de frustrations malgré la situation qu'il a vécue.
M. Henry a indiqué qu'il préfère passer du temps avec les membres de sa famille plutôt que de ressasser le passé.
L'homme de Vancouver a été libéré sous certaines conditions l'an passé. La Couronne avait alors demandé à la Cour d'appel de la province de rouvrir l'affaire.
Radio-Canada.ca avec Presse canadienne
COMMENTAIRE
1
26 ans de compensation financiere et de dédommagement moraux... combien de millions?
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B.C. MAN ACQUITTED ON DECADES-OLD RAPE CONVICTIONS
October 27, 2010
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/10/27/bc-ivan-henry-ruling.html
Ivan Henry has been acquitted of all 10 sex-related charges that sent him to prison for 26 years, the B.C. Court of Appeal said Wednesday morning in Vancouver.
The 63-year-old Vancouver man was convicted in 1983 of three counts of rape and seven other sexual offences but maintained his innocence throughout his more than two decades in prison, before he was released on bail last year.
"This is kind of overwhelming," said Henry as he stood on the steps of the courthouse surrounded by his two daughters and legal team after the ruling was announced.
"I would have to thank my family, because [if] it wouldn't have been for my family, I don't think that I would have made it," he said.
SURPRISINGLY HAPPY
Henry's cheerful demeanor surprised many on hand for the ruling, but he said he was not angry or bitter.
"It would not heal me if I was angry," he said. "That wouldn't do any good. I would just walk around then start drinking or whatever. No, I can't do that."
He has yet to decide yet if he plans to seek compensation for his wrongful conviction. Instead, his immediate plans included getting his teeth fixed and spending time with his family and his new dog, he said.
"I've got grandkids that I'm so proud of, and I got a little dog that I look after, and he's my friend," he said.
Henry was freed last year when a special prosecutor concluded there may have been a miscarriage of justice in his case, and a police investigation pointed to a different suspect in the attacks.
He said adjusting to life after 26 years in prison was difficult at first.
"It was really hard to get out, eh, you know," he said. "There was a lot of things that bothered me when I first got out, eh. Specifically … everybody, so many people, so many cars, so many … just everything .… It was really hard on me, because I come from 1982 and we didn't have the same amount of people and stuff.
"I'd still like to say to people that are still incarcerated, don't give up," he said.
"All I care about is justice prevailed today," said his daughter Tanya Olivares.
"This has been a sentence for my dad but also to my sister and I. It's 29 years of knowing nothing else."
IMPRISONED IN 1983
Henry's convictions related to the rapes of several women that occurred between May 1981 and June 1982 in three Vancouver neighbourhoods.
On Wednesday the appeal court ruling quashed all the convictions and granted him an acquittal on all 10 counts.
The appeal court said the trial judge erred by instructing jurors they could find Henry guilty because of his reluctance to participate in a police lineup in 1982 and that the instructions on the proper identification of a perpetrator were inadequate. Henry represented himself at the original trial.
It also ruled the charges should have been divided into separate trials and a mistrial should have been declared when the Crown abandoned an application for jury instruction.
The court ruled any of the errors would require a new trial if considered alone but that evidence against Henry as a whole was incapable of proving the element of identification on any of the 10 counts, and thus the verdicts were unreasonable.
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IN HIS WORDS
Read a transcript of Ivan Henry's reaction to his acquittal
TRANSCRIPT: IVAN HENRY REACTS TO ACQUITTAL
27 oct. 2010
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/10/27/ivan-henry-acquittal-transcript.html
"I have to thank my family, because [if] it wouldn't have been for my family, I don't think that I would have made it. In the psychological terms, you know, because it was really hard to get out, eh? You know, there was a lot of things that bothered me when I first got out, eh? Specifically, the — everybody, so many people, so many cars, so many — just everything, so much bulk in cafes and everything. It was really hard on me because I come from [19]82 and we didn't have the same amount of people and stuff.
"The world changed big-time, right? And of course it's still going to take a couple of days to realize all this stuff. Because this is kind of overwhelming, if that's the right term, right? I'd like to get my teeth fixed, I'd like to get everything done, you know, and try to work from there, you know — and with a great family, how can you not win?
"I thank [you] all, all across the country and all Canada, you know, because we do live in a wonderful, wonderful country. I believed [I would be cleared] from the very, very beginning — I thought it was a joke, in a sense. And as the joke kind of went away, I don't know, I had a great belief in God and in people, honesty. I believe in honesty, a lot of it, and maybe that's why, right? Because there's not much — well, we all got to believe in honesty, in some sense, that something will always work right, if you just wait for it, right? ....
"[The acquittal] wouldn't heal me if I was angry. That wouldn't do any good. I would just walk around and then start drinking or whatever. No, I can't do that. I've got grandkids that I'm so proud of and I got a little dog that I look after, and he's my friend...
"It's just the way it is, right? And I'd like to say to people that are still incarcerated, 'Don't give up. You know, keep plugging ahead and work to ... get out and to learn what society is all about. It's not all a dirty world, eh?' You know, we're all here to try to help each other and maybe, that way we can — I don't know — become better with each other, right, and try to live together. Because it's only one world and that's about it. And I don't know what else I got to say."
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B.C. MAN WRONGLY CONVICTED OF SEXUAL ASSAULTS
ROBERT MATAS
Oct. 27, 2010
Vancouver
Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-man-wrongly-convicted-of-sexual-assaults/article1774830/
The B.C. Appeal Court has ruled that Regina-born Ivan Henry was wrongfully convicted of a string of sexual assaults in Vancouver 27 years ago and has been in prison since then for crimes he did not commit.
Mr. Henry, 64, joins a growing list of men who have been wrongfully convicted in Canada that includes David Milgaard, Guy Paul Morin, Donald Marshall and, most recently William Mullins-Johnson.
Mr. Henry's case stands out in the annals of injustice in Canada for the length of time he served in prison before he was absolved of the crimes. His two daughters were seven and nine when he was incarcerated. He now has three grandchildren.
The B.C. Court of Appeal decided he should be acquitted on all charges.
“The verdicts [on all charges] were unreasonable,” a three-member panel of the appeal court stated in a 39- page ruling released Wednesday. “Legal errors were made at the trial and the appeal must be allowed.”
The evidence was incapable of proving identification of Mr. Henry as the perpetrator on any of the charges, the appeal court judges concluded.
Also, the trial judge made a number of errors, including when he instructed jurors that they could infer consciousness of guilt from Mr. Henry's resistance to participate in a police line-up, they decided.
Further, the appeal court stated the trial judge erred in failing to separate the counts and, at one point, to declare a mistrial.
“Any of these errors standing alone, would require this court to order a new trial,” the appeal court judges stated.
Mr. Henry was in a holding cell when he heard about the court ruling. He was released from custody last year while the court considered his appeal but was required to return to jail Wednesday morning, in case the court ruled against him. He was not in court when the ruling was distributed to the lawyers.
He was released from custody less than an hour later. In remarks on the courthouse steps, he was gracious to ”the good judges [who] propelled this into acquittal” and insisted he was not angry about spending almost three decades in prison for crimes he did not commit.
“That would not do me any good,” he said. “Walking around, maybe start drinking or whatever. I cannot do that. I got grandkids that I’m so proud of. I got a little dog I look after. He is my friend. It is just the way it is.”
He said he believed he lived in “a wonderful, wonderful country.”
Mr. Henry also offered a message to those still in prison who may be innocent. “Keep plugging ahead and work to get out and learn what society is all about. It is not all a dirty world. We all here to try to help each other and maybe that way, we can, I don’t know, become better with each other and try to live together. It is only one world,” Mr. Henry said.
Mr. Henry was convicted in 1983 of three counts of rape, two counts of attempted rape and five counts of indecent assault in attacks on eight women between May, 1981 and June 1982 in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. He was subsequently declared a dangerous offender, which means that he could be held in custody indefinitely.
Mr. Henry made more than 50 applications over the years, trying to have his case reconsidered. It was only after evidence surfaced in 2006, during an investigation related to serial killer Robert Pickton, that he found others who believed in his innocence. It took another four years for the court to decide whether to overturn his conviction.
Mr. Henry protested his innocence from the day of his arrest on July 29, 1982 at One Hundred Mile House in the B.C. Interior. “They approached me with a gun in hand, telling me I was under arrest for rape, unlawful confinement and kidnapping,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “I thought, I don’t know, what can I say. The gun is there. I cannot do much about it. I cannot just peel away in my car.”
Mr. Henry was interviewed at a coffee shop in North Vancouver, on the day before he was to hear the court ruling. He was accompanied by two lawyers, who interrupted occasionally to redirect his responses to some questions and divert him from talking about the details of his case or his previous criminal record.
Munching on a slice of pumpkin cheesecake, he was prepared to talk about his experiences while incarcerated. But his replies were often rambling, disjointed and difficult to follow.
He recalled the Mounties showed him the charges against him once they had taken him back to the station. They asked him if he knew serial killer Clifford Olson. “I said, yeah, he was my next door neighbour in jail,” Mr. Henry said before one of his lawyers cut him off and reminded him of what he wanted to stay away from during the interview.
Asked about when he was in jail before this incident, one of his lawyers intervened again. “I want to stay away from the past. The past was not very good to me. . . I was in jail before, for lots of stuff,” Mr. Henry said.
He had a significant criminal record beginning with property crimes, that dates back to before being arrested for sexual assaults in Vancouver. He was convicted of attempted rape involving a threat of violence in 1977 in Winnipeg. He was sentenced to five years. He was on mandatory supervision for the attempted rape conviction when he was arrested in July, 1982.
Mr. Henry said he did not initially take the charges seriously. He thought the authorities would realize they made a mistake. It took several months before he accepted that he was really in trouble.
He represented himself at his trial and questioned the victims aggressively, according to media reports. He did not trust any lawyer to represent him, he said in the interview. But despite taking charge of his defence, he felt he did not receive a fair trial. “[The judge] figured I was a sharp shooter, a talker. The record indicated I had no concern for anybody, that I was just a villain,” Mr. Henry said.
However he did not blame the judge for what he saw as unfairness. Mr. Henry said he does not want to blame anyone. “What for? I am not going to heal that way,” he said.
As the years passed, his biggest fear was that he would die before he would be released from prison. He never believed he would really remain in prison for the rest of his life, he said. He offered a wager of $5,000 to the guards, betting that he would be released, he said.
Religion and letter-writing to more than a dozen people, including a priest, sustained him while he was in prison, he also said. “It is tough to maintain stability without anybody giving you a little push,” Mr. Henry said.
He refused to participate in rehabilitation programs, professing his innocence. The court has heard that he worked most of the time while in prison as a cook and he mostly kept to himself. The Parole Board described his behaviour as “non problematic.”
Psychiatric and psychological assessments in recent years have reported that he suffers from personality disorders that leave him seriously dysfunctional in interpersonal relationships and in society, the court was told. However Mr. Henry does not have a major psychotic illness.
The prosecution in 1982 relied mostly on eyewitnesses and voice identification evidence from the victims. In re-opening the case last year, the court found that the prosecution failed to disclose 27 oral and written victims’ statements to police and failed to tell him about forensic and police reports indicating biological material that could have been subject to testing that may have returned results excluding him.
Among the issues raised during the review of his case was a photograph of Mr. Henry in a police lineup in 1982. A police officer had him in a headlock; other men in the lineup appeared to be laughing. Some of his alleged victims identified him during the line-up.
The recently-identified suspect lived in the area of the offences and was believed to resemble Mr. Henry in appearance. Also, the suspect had been convicted of three sexual assaults in the same neighbourhood. A publication ban prohibits the identification of the suspect.
97 commentaires
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HenryCOURT OF APPEAL FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA (24 pages)
http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/00969/Regina_v_Henry_Judg_969861a.pdf
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MAN WHO SPENT ALMOST 27 YEARS IN PRISON APPEARS CLOSE TO VINDICATION
Rod Mickleburgh
Jun. 21, 2010
Globe and Mail
Vancouver
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/man-who-spent-almost-27-years-in-prison-appears-close-to-vindication/article1612226/
For decades, Ivan Henry was variously scorned, ignored and rejected as he fought desperately from behind bars for someone to listen to his cry of innocence.
Now, more than 25 years after his conviction of a string of violent sexual assaults against eight Vancouver women in the early 1980s, Mr. Henry, 63, appears close to vindication and the prospect of spending his remaining years free at last of incarceration and the stain of guilt.
“It seems to me that [his] appeal has to be allowed,” B.C. Court of Appeal Mr. Justice Richard Low declared Monday, as an unusual hearing into Mr. Henry’s case began.
The only remaining issue to be decided by the court, added Judge Low, is whether Mr. Henry should be tried again or receive an outright acquittal.
If he is acquitted, his nearly 27 years in jail would be one of the longest prison stretches in Canadian history by someone who was innocent.
“That is 27 years too long,” his lawyer David Layton told the court. “This case is an almost perfect paradigm of an unsafe conviction.”
There were “serious deficiencies” in the trial judge’s charge to the jury, the Crown failed to disclose crucial information and Mr. Henry decided to act as his own lawyer, which, “to say the least, he was ill-prepared to do,” Mr. Layton said. “It was … a perfect storm of weakness, flaws, mistakes and deficiencies.”
As he listed the trial’s alleged shortcomings in withering detail, Mr. Henry’s daughters listened from the front row, often shaking their heads in dismay. A box of tissues was beside them.
Mr. Henry has been free on bail for the past 18 months, living with his daughter in North Vancouver, while undergoing psychiatric counselling and obeying a curfew imposed on him by the court.
The chances of a new trial succeeding are slim, given that the main evidence against him was his identification by some of the victims from a bizarre police line-up photo, derided by Mr. Layton as “egregiously flawed.”
The photo shows half a dozen, mostly smiling stand-ins and Mr. Henry, grimacing from a headlock and other restraints from several police officers who are forcing him into the lineup.
“This made it clear [to the victims] that he was the police suspect … and a pretty strong suspect,” said Mr. Layton, who noted nonetheless that three of the victims did not identify anyone in the lineup and one identified a stand-in. “Any competent defence lawyer would have made a big deal out of the line-up.”
Upon his conviction in 1983, Mr. Henry was declared a dangerous sexual offender. Because he showed no remorse, insisted on his innocence and at times exhibited unusual behaviour, his many bids for parole were rejected.
Mr. Henry’s case was reopened in 2006, after the Crown learned of new information pointing to another suspect. He was finally granted leave last year to appeal, despite the passage of time. The Crown did not contest the application.
Before new evidence surfaced, however, Mr. Henry got nowhere trying to have his case reviewed. Still acting as his own lawyer, he filed an initial appeal back in the 1980’s, but it was never acted upon.
Over the years, he kept up a constant barrage of files and petitions, seeking medical records, DNA evidence and police records that might prove his innocence. In 2000, the B.C. Supreme Court dismissed his applications as “frivolous and inappropriate.”
The Appeal Court hearing continues today.
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HENRY APPEAL TARGETS 1983 JUDGE AND PROSECUTOR
ROBERT MATAS
Feb. 21, 2009
Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/henry-appeal-targets-1983-judge-and-prosecutor/article7793/
Ivan Henry says he was convicted of rape, attempted rape and indecent assault 26 years ago based on a litany of errors by the trial judge and prosecutor.
In a notice of appeal in a highly unusual case, Mr. Henry alleges he was wrongfully convicted and says the prosecutor failed to tell him about forensic and police reports that indicated biological material from alleged victims could have been subjected to testing capable of excluding him.
The prosecutor did not show Mr. Henry, who represented himself, 27 oral and written statements made by alleged victims. The prosecutor also did not tell him about information relating to other police suspects. One of the suspects lived in the area where the crimes were committed, resembled Mr. Henry in appearance and was convicted of three sexual assaults in the same neighbourhood.
Mr. Henry has been in custody since July 29, 1982, after his arrest for a string of 10 attacks against eight women in Vancouver. He was convicted and declared a dangerous offender in 1983. Appeals in 1984 and 1997 were unsuccessful.
However, the B.C. Court of Appeal in January decided to re-open the case, 10 months after a special prosecutor, Len Doust, concluded that Mr. Henry's conviction may have been a miscarriage of justice.
At his trial, Mr. Henry testified on his own behalf, denying he had committed the crimes. The prosecution relied mostly on eyewitness and voice-identification evidence from the victims.
In his notice of appeal, Mr. Henry states that his submissions will be entirely based on grounds involving questions of law. The alleged errors made by the trial judge included telling the jury that it could use Mr. Henry's refusal to co-operate in a police lineup as evidence of guilt and failing to instruct the jury to disregard evidence indicating he was a police suspect in similar sexual assaults in the same area and around the same time.
Mr. Henry has asked the appeal court to set aside his convictions and formally state that he has been acquitted on all counts. Alternately, he has asked for a new trial.
A date has not yet been set for the appeal. Mr. Henry is expected to apply for bail in a few weeks, his lawyer David Layton said yesterday.
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IVAN HENRY'S 1982 POLICE LINEUP PHOTO RELEASED
Neal Hall,
Jan. 15, 2009
Canwest News Service
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Ivan+Henry+1982+police+lineup+photo+released/1185248/story.html
A photograph in Ivan Henry’s appeal court file shows him in a police lineup in 1982 being restrained by three police officers, one of whom has him in a headlock, while other men in the lineup are laughing.
But it was no laughing matter for Henry, now 62, who complained for more than two decades that he was wrongly convicted.
Henry’s 1983 trial ended with him convicted of 10 charges involving eight women.
After serving 26 years, he managed this week to convince three judges of the B.C. Court of Appeal to hear his appeal.
Court documents released Thursday to The Vancouver Sun indicate at least two of his alleged victims witnessed him being restrained by police in the lineup, drawing their attention to him.
They later testified against him.
One of them told his trial: “There was one person in particular that was being held by three police officers as he seemed to be either unable to stand on his own or was struggling somehow and so he was being restrained.”
The woman testified she was “pretty sure” her assailant was “the one that was being held by police — No. 12.”
Henry wore the number 12 around his neck in the lineup, which was held when he was first arrested.
In a summary of witness testimony contained in the appeal court file, another of Henry’s alleged victims testified she was told the men in the lineup were going to repeat something said during the sex attacks, “but we didn’t get a chance to really hear their voice.”
Another woman testified she did hear Henry speak in the police lineup and recalled:
“There is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Henry’s voice is the voice of the man who attacked me.”
The day of the lineup, Henry was also interrogated and then released from custody by Vancouver police. He was not charged at the time.
He was arrested again in 100 Mile House on July 29, 1982 and has been in custody ever since. He was initially charged with a 19-count indictment, later reduced at trial to 10 charges involving eight women.
For years, Henry has complained that he was an innocent man and he has made a total of 55 applications trying to get the appeal court to reconsider his case.
The B.C. Court of Appeal repeatedly dismissed his applications as frivolous — until this week.
The appeal court file, made available to The Sun following an application to the chief justice, includes rambling, disjointed, handwritten correspondence from Henry with the appeal court dated Nov. 10, 1983, after he was found guilty but before he was declared a dangerous offender, which carries an open-ended sentence.
Henry said in the document that he was “dragged” into the police lineup, his hands were forced behind his back and “a picture was snapped of me.”
He said in the affidavit to the court that he left town the next day and was babysitting his children at the time one of the alleged offences occurred.
He added: “I have not done any charge set out in indictment CC821614, nor do I know any of the women, period.”
Henry’s appeal is expected to be heard later this year. His lawyer, Cameron Ward, said he expects to apply soon to have his client released on bail.
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TRIAL JUDGE DEFENDS IVAN HENRY’S CONVICTION
Ian Mulgrew
Jan. 15, 2009
Canwest News Service
http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/Trial+judge+defends+Ivan+Henry+conviction/1193975/story.html
The judge who presided over the 1983 sex-crimes trial of Ivan Henry reopened by the Court of Appeal has fired back in his blog at critics who have questioned the fairness of the trial.
Retired B.C. Supreme Court justice John Bouck says he did everything possible to ensure Henry got a fair trial and he continues to believe justice was done in spite of last week’s announcement that another man may be responsible for Henry’s crimes.
The B.C. Court of Appeal last week reopened Henry’s case because of evidence that he was not the man responsible for a series of sex crimes in the 1980s.
After a jury convicted Henry, Justice Bouck declared him a dangerous offender and ordered him imprisoned indefinitely.
Prosecutors have now declared a miscarriage of justice may have occurred and Justice Bouck felt he had to speak out.
“I am handicapped with respect to some of the particulars since I do not have a copy of the trial transcript or the investigators’ report,” he began on his Sunday posting on bouckslawblog.typepad.com
“Before the 1983 trial commenced, Mr. Henry’s lawyer advised me that Mr. Henry did not want his representation. He wanted to defend himself. In open court and in the absence of the jury Mr. Henry confirmed his position. I urged him not to proceed without legal advice. He insisted that he wanted to go ahead without a lawyer.”
In its unprecedented ruling, the Court of Appeal cited the special prosecutor’s concerns that Justice Bouck had failed to give Henry as much aid during the trial as he should have.
“I did my best to help him but with little success,” Justice Bouck said in his posting.
“The gist of the prosecution’s case was Mr. Henry’s alleged modus operandi. All of the rapes occurred near his residence. The Crown alleged that around 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. he jimmied open ground floor sliding glass doors where the single women complainants lived and sexually assaulted them. When the time came for his defence he did not call any witnesses and declined to take the witness stand in his own defence.”
Justice Bouck said also that Henry put into evidence a picture of his police lineup that put him in a bad light even though he was told not to do so.
As well, the justice says in his Internet posting, that Henry was on parole for two earlier rapes he committed in Saskatchewan at the time he committed the 1983 offences.
Justice Bouck today asks why Henry’s wife, who is now dead, didn’t testify on his behalf at the trial. And he maintained that while he was serving time for the Saskatchewan offences, Henry learned how to install sliding glass doors.
“The Attorney-General criticized my handling of the case,” Justice Bouck said. “I admit that Mr. Henry did not get a perfect trial or a perfect dangerous offender hearing. Nobody does.
“Trials are conducted and decided by imperfect human beings applying imperfect laws. The most the criminal justice system can offer is a fair trial. Mr. Henry got both a fair trial and a fair dangerous offender hearing.”
Justice Bouck insists that if Henry did not receive a fair trial, it is his own fault.
“According to media reports, Mr. Henry asked for legal help in pursuing his appeals but never got it,” Bouck said.
“If that is true, it is a condemnation of the Attorney-General’s Legal Aid system which lawyers and judges constantly criticize. The Attorney-General’s investigators did not bother to interview me before they condemned me publicly nor did they send me a copy of their report.”
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ON MEMORY: EYEWITNESS ERRORS COSTLY
http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/Memory+Eyewitness+errors+costly/2368643/story.html
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B.C. MAN ACQUITTED OF RAPES AFTER 26 YEARS IN JAIL
By Petti Fong
With files from Canadian Press.
0ct. 27 2010
Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/881841--b-c-man-acquitted-of-rapes-after-26-years-in-jail?bn=1
VANCOUVER – A relieved and “happier than ever” Ivan Henry, who was acquitted Wednesday after spending 26 years in jail, says his first plans for freedom is seeing his grandson's soccer game.
Henry told his daughter Wednesday after hearing BC's highest court have ordered him released that he wants to watch a soccer game and go out for dinner.
A three panel of judges on the B.C. Court of Appeal quashed the convictions and acquitted Henry on all counts Wednesday as the now elderly and frail man and his daughters, who have been fighting for years to overturn the convictions, applauded the new ruling.
Henry’s sentence is believed to be the longest anyone in Canada has spent behind bars for a crime in which they were subsequently acquitted.
He said he's not angry after years of trying to get himself exonerated for crimes he didn't commit.
“It wouldn't heal me if I was angry,” a jubilant Ivan Henry said Wednesday as he hugged his two daughters outside court.
“I've got grandkids that I'm so proud of. I've got a little dog that I look after, and he's my friend.”
“I'd like to say to people who are still incarcerated, `Don't give up. Keep plugging ahead and work to get out and to learn what society's all about. It's not all a dirty world. We're all here to try and help each other.'”
Henry was convicted in 1983 of 10 counts of rape and indecent assault of eight women. The victims were alone at night when their assailant gained access to their basement or ground level suites. The offences included five counts of indecent assault, two counts of attempted rape and three counts of rape.
Henry was convicted by a jury and later declared a dangerous offender by a trial judge, which imposed on him an indeterminate sentence.
Henry, who represented himself in the initial court proceedings, filed appeals but none of them were successful until this latest one, which was heard earlier this year in Vancouver.
His appeal was based on a number of grounds including what was referred to in court as “consciousness of guilt.”
After Henry’s arrest in 1982, he refused to participate in a physical line-up. Police officers forced him into the line-up and one officer held him in a headlock as seen in a photograph that was entered as evidence in his appeal.
While in a headlock, Henry struggled and shouted and was restrained. One uniformed constable put his arm around Henry’s neck and forced his head up. His photograph was used in a photographic line-up and seen by some of the witnesses.
Another police investigation reopened doubts about Henry’s guilt following a 2002 operation called “Project Smallman.” Vancouver police re-investigated 25 unsolved sexual assaults committed from April 1983 to July 1988, a period when Henry was already in prison.
DNA evidence obtained during “Project Smallman” led to the arrest and conviction of another man identified only as DM because his identity is protected under a publication ban.
Crown prosecutors noted similarities between the Henry case and the “Project Smallman” findings and brought those similarities to the attention of B.C.’s criminal justice branch which appointed an independent lawyer to reinvestigate a potential miscarriage of justice in Henry’s conviction.
The courts ordered that an appeal be re-opened and a 12-day trial was held last June.
In ordering Henry’s conviction quashed, the B.C. Court of Appeal Wednesday found that the trial judge had made several errors including the judge’s instruction that Henry’s photo resisting participation in the police line-up could be used as evidence of “consciousness of guilt.”
While the court of appeal judges said the evidence from Project Small does not “exonerate” Henry, it is evidence capable of raising reasonable doubt that should have been enough to lead to his acquittal at the initial trial.
Henry was released from prison two years ago pending his appeal and has been living in North Vancouver with one of his two daughters. Tanya Olivares, 38 and her younger sister Kari Henry, 35, who were children at the time their father went to jail, have been fighting for their father’s appeal.
They are expected to talk later Wednesday about the family’s ordeal and whether Henry, who is now 64 and in ill health, will seek financial compensation for the time he spent in prison.
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WRONGFULLY CONVICTED RAPIST ACQUITTED 26 YEARS LATER
By QMI Agency
October 27, 2010
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/10/27/15850126.html
After 26 years behind bars for a series of rapes he didn't commit, 63-year-old Ivan Henry was acquitted of all charges Wednesday.
Speaking to journalists outside the courthouse, Henry said he holds no resentment about his wrongful conviction.
“I'm not angry. What good would that do?” he said. “It wouldn't heal me if I was angry.”
Henry was convicted in 1983 of three counts of rape — now called sexual assault under the Criminal Code— two counts of attempted rape and five counts of indecent assault in attacks on eight women between May 1981 and June 1982 in Vancouver.
He was declared a dangerous offender, and had it not been for this most recent appeal, he could have remained in jail indefinitely.
But an appeal was granted after Crown prosecutors noticed similarities between Henry's case and an ongoing investigation.
Police have since identified another suspect in the assaults, but a publication ban prohibits the identification of the suspect.
Known only as DM, he lives near the crime scenes and has been convicted of three sexual assaults in the same neighbourhood.
Henry has always maintained his innocence. He filed 55 applications to the court seeking an appeal because he claimed he was wrongfully convicted.
The three-judge panel in the B.C. Court of Appeal said Henry was convicted based on a victim's description that didn't meet the necessary standards.
The panel also said the trial judge erred in instructing the jury they could infer Henry knew he was guilty because he hesitated to participate in a police lineup in 1982.
When Henry refused to enter the police lineup, an officer put him in a headlock and twisted his face towards the camera.
Some victims then used this photograph to identify him.
The new suspect reportedly resembles Henry.
Furthermore, the charges should have been divided into separate trials, the judges said.
“Any of these errors standing alone would require this court to order a new trial,” reads the ruling.
Standing outside the courthouse, Henry's lawyers lauded the ruling.
"There was no basis for a conviction in 1983 and there's no grounds today,"
one of the lawyers said.
Henry's two daughters were also outside the courthouse Wednesday to celebrate their father's victory. They were three and nine when their father went to jail.
“Justice prevailed today and we're just going to move ahead,”
said his daughter Tanya Olivares.
“This has been a sentence for my dad, but it's also been a sentence for us right down to our children.”
Henry said he can't wait to spend time with his daughters, his three grandchildren and his dog.
His wife died while he was still in custody, and Wednesday's ruling comes on the 20th anniversary of her death.
Henry, who was released from prison last year, said he was having difficulty adjusting to life on the outside.
“The world has changed big time. It's kind of overwhelming,” he said.
But he kept a brave face, praising his family, the country and God.
“It's not all a dirty world. We're all here to help each other,” he said.
Henry is one of many men who have been wrongfully convicted in Canada, including David Milgaard, Guy Paul Morin, Donald Marshall and William Mullins-Johnson.
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B.C. MAN WHO SPENT 27 YEARS IN PRISON AS SERIAL RAPIST ACQUITTED ON ALL COUNTS
By Neal Hall,
Oct. 27 2010
VANCOUVER SUN
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/spent+years+prison+serial+rapist+acquitted+counts/3734673/story.html
VANCOUVER - A 64-year-old man who served 27 years for sex crimes he said he didn't commit has been acquitted on all counts.
Ivan Henry was convicted in 1983 of 10 charges of rape and indecent assault involving eight women. After filing 55 applications to the court seeking an appeal, claiming he was wrongly convicted, he was granted an unprecedented appeal last June, when his legal team argued he should be acquitted and set free in light of new police investigation involving similar crimes.
A three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that the trial judge made three errors in his instruction to the jury.
"The evidence as a whole was incapable of proving the element of identification on any of the 10 counts and the verdicts were unreasonable," Appeal Court Justice Richard Low wrote in the unanimous decision, with Justices Risa Levine and David Tysoe agreeing.
"The appropriate remedy under second. 686(2)(a) of the Criminal Code is acquittal on each count," the ruling said. "I would allow the appeal, quash the convictions and enter an acquittal on each count."
Henry likely would seek financial compensation from the B.C. government for wrongful conviction.
David Milgaard, who spent almost 23 years in prison for the 1969 sex murder of Saskatoon nursing aide Gail Miller, was awarded $10 million after a DNA test confirmed what he had claimed for years - he wasn't the killer.
One of Henry's lawyers, David Layton, said outside court that Henry holds the record in Canada of the longest-serving man who was acquitted.
He said Henry wants to enjoy his first day of freedom with his family before discussing compensation with his lawyers, which include Marilyn Sandford and Cameron Ward.
Layton said the appeal court cannot declare innocence but came close to exonerating him by saying the evidence was "polluted" and should not have resulted in a conviction in 1983.
His daughters told reporters that they are thrilled that justice finally prevailed after almost three decades.
Henry was released on bail last June 2009, and has been on bail under electronic monitoring under very restrictive conditions.
He has been living with his daughter in North Vancouver but had to surrender himself to custody this morning, pending the appeal court decision.
Minutes after the court ruling, Henry came outside court and hugged his daughters with tears welling in his eyes.
"I certainly have to thank my good lawyers," he told reporters.
"And I have to thanks the good judges, because it was them who propelled this into acquittal.
"And I have to thank my family because if it wouldn't have been for my family, I don't think I would have made it," Henry said.
"It was really hard to get out."
He said he still is adjusting to life outside prison, saying the world has changed since 1982.
"So many people, so many cars," he said.
"I come from '82, we didn't have the same amount of people and stuff, eh," he explained. "The world changed, big time, right."
Henry said he was "not at all" angry that it took so long to get released.
"It wouldn't heal me if I was angry," he said. "That wouldn't do any good. I'd just walk around and start drinkin'," he added.
"I've got (three) grandkids I'm so proud of."
He said he would like to send a message of "don't give up" to others in prison like him.
He recalled thinking when he was first convicted it was a cruel joke but always believed he would overturn his conviction.
Asked if he wished he would have had a lawyer at trial rather than representing himself, he smiled and said; "That's like a boat without oars, eh."
He then walked off with his daughters, who planned to go out to dinner with their dad to celebrate..
Henry was convicted solely on identification by the victims.
The appeal court found the identification was weak and the trial judge erred by instructing the jurors that they could infer consciousness of guilt from the resistance of Ivan to participation in the line-up conducted by police on May 12, 1982.
The appeal court also found the trial judge's instruction on the element of identification was inadequate.
And, the ruling said, "There should have been severance of the counts and a mistrial when the Crown abandoned its application for jury instruction on count-to-count similar fact evidence," the appeal court panel decided.
Henry was convicted in 1983 of raping and indecently assaulting eight Vancouver women. He was declared a dangerous offender and sentenced to an indefinite prison term.
Now 63, Henry has claimed for years he was wrongly convicted. His protests fell on deaf ears.
He filed dozens of court application to try to reopen his case, at times asking officials to compare the forensic evidence from the crime scene to his own blood type.
His applications, made without the aid of a lawyer, were dismissed as frivolous.
Unfortunately, the physical evidence from crime scene that may have contained DNA to help exonerate him was not kept by police or the Crown. It was destroyed.
Henry's appeal offered a shocking piece of evidence used to convict him - a 1982 photograph showed Henry in a headlock by a police officer during a lineup, held to see if rape victims could identify their attacker.
The lineup was made up of police officers in civilian clothes. Most were smiling.
The only one not happy in the photo was Henry, who yelled and struggled as he was brought in for the police lineup.
"If this had been disclosed, it would have been a gold mine for a defence lawyer," Appeal Court Justice Richard Low said of the photo during Henry's appeal hearing in June, when the court reserved judgment.
The Crown now admits that the identification process used by the police completely undermined the value of the victims' identification of Henry as the assailant.
The Crown's conviction was based almost solely on identification.
Many of the women victims could not provide enough detail to identify Henry as the rapist until the police lineup.
Some of the victims identified Henry only by his voice, which was heard during the police line-up.
The day of the lineup, Henry was interrogated and released from custody by Vancouver police. He was not charged. He was arrested again in 100 Mile House on July 29, 1982 and was initially charged with a 19-count indictment, later reduced at trial to 10 charges involving eight women.
Henry complained for years that he was an innocent man. He made a total of 55 applications trying to get the appeal court to reconsider his case.
The appeal court considered him properly convicted. It changed its mind in January 2009, when Henry was granted an appeal.
The reversal partly stemmed from a Vancouver police department review of old sex cases spurred by the Robert (Willie) Pickton murders.
The investigation, dubbed Project Small Man, led to the 2006 appointment of special prosecutor Len Doust, who was asked to find out if a miscarriage of justice might had occurred.
His report in 2008 led to the unprecedented order that Henry's appeal be reopened.
Henry's apparent wrongful conviction might not have come to light if it hadn't been for the sharp memory of a veteran Crown prosecutor, Jean Connor, who was reading a memo about an accused serial rapist that rang a bell four years ago.
Connor recalled in an interview last year that she was surprised how similar the facts in the memo were to the ones she remembered from a sex case more than two decades earlier.
She took the document and walked down the hall to the office of her colleague, Mike Luchenko, who had prosecuted the Henry case in 1983.
She read out details of the crimes contained in the memo, then asked: "Who's that?"
"Ivan Henry," Luchenko replied.
Connor told him it was another man facing similar charges involving more than 20 women.
Connor said she and Luchenko then went to their boss at the time, Mike Hicks, now a judge, and told him about the similarities in the cases.
That meeting led to then attorney-general Wally Opal appointing Doust to review the Henry case as a possible miscarriage of justice.
Henry's daughters, Tanya Olivares, 37, a North Vancouver mother of two, and Kari Henry, 35, were optimistic their father would be exonerated after a 27-year battle to clear his name.
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Photo http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Ivan+Henry+1982+police+lineup+photo+released/1185248/story.html
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Photo http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Ivan+Henry+1982+police+lineup+photo+released/1185248/story.html
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Photo http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-man-wrongly-convicted-of-sexual-assaults/article1774830/
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Photo http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/10/27/bc-ivan-henry-ruling.html
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Photo http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/881841--b-c-man-acquitted-of-rapes-after-26-years-in-jail?bn=1
