Catch-up Twelve: Ivan Henry: British Columbia; (National Post. June 8, 2016) He has been awarded more than $8M for spending nearly three decades behind bars for his wrongful conviction..."In a 130-page ruling released Wednesday, Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson of the B.C. Supreme Court criticized the Crown’s decision to withhold key evidence that he said Henry was entitled to receive. The judge said it demonstrated a “shocking disregard” for Henry’s charter rights."..."In his ruling Wednesday, Hinkson outlined a series of police notes, reports, lab information, interviews, witness statements and Vancouver police property and exhibits that weren’t disclosed to Henry before or during his trial. The Crown also didn’t tell Henry or his lawyer that a police detective believed one of the victims had been assaulted by a different person, said the decision."..."Henry’s lawsuit described his arrest in May 1982. He claimed he was escorted to the Vancouver police station and, without having had an opportunity to speak to a lawyer, was “forcibly dragged” into a lineup room. Henry was made to stand in the lineup with six other men, described as “foils.” He was the only person in the lineup with red or curly hair, he claims, and he was shorter than the other men. Henry was unco-operative. He “struggled and yelled” and was eventually restrained by police officers. Eleven sexual assault victims — including six complainants at his subsequent trial — viewed the lineup and watched him struggle. A lineup photograph was taken and was later made public; (To see the infamous photo, go to CBC story at link below. HL;) it showed a grinning police officer holding Henry in a headlock. “The lineup made it abundantly clear that the plaintiff was the VPD suspect,” the lawsuit read. Nevertheless, the six complainants did not identify Henry as their attacker until later."

"Ivan Henry spent more than 27 years locked inside some of Canada’s toughest jails and prisons, wrongly convicted of a string of violent sexual assaults, rapes that he didn’t commit. He was declared a dangerous offender. He lost his family, his reputation, a huge chunk of his life. Now he’s been awarded more than $8 million by a B.C. court. Henry’s 10 convictions from 1983 were quashed in the Court of Appeal for British Columbia in the fall of 2010. The following year, he filed a civil lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court, accusing three former Vancouver police officers of “gross negligence and malicious and wilful misconduct” in their “reckless” pursuit of him three decades prior. Their investigation of a series of remarkably similar sexual assaults in four Vancouver communities was botched, he claimed. Rather than pursue a more likely suspect described in his lawsuit as D.M., a man “with a history of late-night sexual predatory behaviour” in the same communities, the officers ignored their professional judgment and focused on Henry, he said. Also named in his lawsuit were the City of Vancouver, the Attorney General of Canada and the B.C. Attorney General, whom he accused of malicious prosecution. At trial, he had sought an award of more than $30 million in damages. In a 130-page ruling released Wednesday, Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson of the B.C. Supreme Court criticized the Crown’s decision to withhold key evidence that he said Henry was entitled to receive. The judge said it demonstrated a “shocking disregard” for Henry’s charter rights. “Crown counsel’s wrongful non-disclosure seriously infringed Mr. Henry’s right to a fair trial,” Hinkson wrote in his decision. “If Mr. Henry had received the disclosure to which he was entitled, the likely result would have been his acquittal at his 1983 trial … and certainly the avoidance of his sentencing as dangerous offender.” Henry’s lawsuit described his arrest in May 1982. He claimed he was escorted to the Vancouver police station and, without having had an opportunity to speak to a lawyer, was “forcibly dragged” into a lineup room. Henry was made to stand in the lineup with six other men, described as “foils.” He was the only person in the lineup with red or curly hair, he claims, and he was shorter than the other men. Henry was unco-operative. He “struggled and yelled” and was eventually restrained by police officers. Eleven sexual assault victims — including six complainants at his subsequent trial — viewed the lineup and watched him struggle. A lineup photograph was taken and was later made public; it showed a grinning police officer holding Henry in a headlock. “The lineup made it abundantly clear that the plaintiff was the VPD suspect,” the lawsuit read. Nevertheless, the six complainants did not identify Henry as their attacker until later......... While he languished in prison, more sexual assaults of a similar nature occurred in the same Vancouver communities. No charges were laid related to those assaults until Vancouver police reopened the investigation in 2002. “Project Smallman” turned up DNA evidence that led police to D.M. He pleaded guilty to three sexual assaults in 2005. Because of similarities with D.M.’s offences, Henry’s convictions were reviewed by a special prosecutor and in 2009 the B.C. Court of Appeal accepted an application to have his case heard again. His name was cleared in October of 2010. He had just turned 64. In his ruling Wednesday, Hinkson outlined a series of police notes, reports, lab information, interviews, witness statements and Vancouver police property and exhibits that weren’t disclosed to Henry before or during his trial. The Crown also didn’t tell Henry or his lawyer that a police detective believed one of the victims had been assaulted by a different person, said the decision."
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/canada/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/b-c-judge-awards-ivan-henry-8m-for-spending-nearly-three-decades-in-jail-for-wrongful-conviction

Lineup photo: (Vancouver Police Department);
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ivan-henry-award-wrongful-imprisonment-1.3622588

See  reporter Ian Mulgrew  commentary:  "Ivan Henry gets multimillion dollar vindication."..."He arrived at B.C. Supreme Court on Aug. 31 last year accompanied by his family and a flock of black-robed lawyers. Over the following four months, the stocky 69-year-old was the focus of an epic wrongful conviction trial and suit over damages for a breach of constitutional rights — a new area of law developing around the globe."

http://www.leaderpost.com/opinion/columnists/mulgrew+ivan+henry+gets+multimillion+dollar+vindication/11973637/story.html