Monday, October 19, 2015

Ivan Henry. British Columbia; Ivan Henry forced to respond — again — to rape allegations Trial to determine compensation for wrongful conviction dredges up 69-year-old’s past


STORY:  "Ivan Henry forced to respond — again — to rape allegations   Trial to determine compensation for wrongful conviction dredges up 69-year-old’s past," by reporter Ian Mulgrew,  published by the Vancouver Sun on October 18, 2015.

PHOTO CAPTION:  Ivan Henry and his daughter Tanya Olivares, centre, leave B.C. Supreme Court in this file photo. Henry was cross-examined last week during a trial to determine compensation for his 27 years in prison. He was acquitted in 2010.
GIST: "Ivan Henry was grilled during a cross-examination that culminated Friday with the pointed accusation that he committed the 1982 rapes for which he has been acquitted. “Didn’t you?” City of Vancouver lawyer Bruce Quayle asked the 69-year-old sitting in the B.C. Supreme Court witness box. “No,” Henry replied, denying the accusation that mocked the 2010 B.C. Court of Appeal decision that said no properly instructed jury should have convicted him — triggering this trial to determine whether he should be compensated for his time in prison. Lawyers for the federal and provincial governments in cross-examination were content with mitigating their institution’s roles and underscoring Henry’s own responsibility for his 27 years of incarceration for not accepting a lawyer or heeding legal advice over the years. Quayle, however, insinuated throughout his often testy interrogation that Henry deserved it. Sometimes frustrated, sometimes incomprehensible, sometimes wiping away tears, the grade-school failure battled back, insisting he was “no dummy,” “I’m not stupid!” He regularly used legal malapropisms, argued procedural issues he knew nothing about and acknowledged copying bits of legalese from the criminal code and lawyer’s letters over the years to inundate ministers and the courts with protestations of his innocence. He drove judges and government officials batty with writs of habeas corpus, certiorari or mandamus and applications to quash, to prohibit or to get a hearing. It was a collection of paper that eventually filled three large trunks in Henry’s cell. The cognitive dissonance, the personality ticks and the psychiatric issues that troubled him throughout his life — and exacerbated his ordeal — were on full display. He was his own best exhibit for the damage done by inter-generational addiction and abuse coupled with lengthy incarceration. The perils of self-representation by the poor and vulnerable in a legal system run by arcane rules and a concern for due process rather than fairness were on full display. Quayle dragged Henry through the sordid details of his convictions in the 1960s and 1970s on the Prairies.........With that, Quayle reached the climax of his cross: “And in that period of 1980 to 1982, Mr. Henry, as in Winnipeg in 1976, you sometimes went out in the middle of the night and sexually assaulted women while they were alone and sleeping in their homes in Vancouver, didn’t you?” “No,” the weary witness replied. “And you committed some or all of the sexual assault crimes for which you were convicted in March 1983, didn’t you Mr. Henry?” “No,” he said. The courtroom was quiet. Henry looked drained. Quayle asked a few other brief questions before court adjourned for the day. Henry stepped from the box wan, his sense of self, whatever dignity he had, pummelled. The trial continues.
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/ivan+henry+forced+respond+again+rape+allegations/11447987/story.html#ixzz3ozrXPW61

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
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The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
 http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
 
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
 
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html  

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Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;