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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Blaming the passage of years, Clanfield said he doesn’t recall anything about the interview. His memo books have not been located. But while he was just a self-described “gofer” seconded to homicide at the time, he agreed with lawyer James Lockyer that he would have certainly reported Raymer’s “holy, goodness gracious” admissions. “None of this was in his testimony, either at the preliminary hearing or trial — and yet you would have passed this information on to the investigating officers, am I right?” the lawyer asked. “I would have told them, for sure. I cannot see why I would not,” he said. “You cannot doubt the implications of this. Gofer or not, I’m still a policeman.” So why was none of this ever disclosed to Rees’s defence lawyers at the time?"
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "The 30-minute cassette tape was recorded at the police station following the discovery of Darla’s body in her Etobicoke bedroom on the morning of March 17, 1989. Clanfield started the recording after returning with Raymer from the bathroom and the officer began by asking him to repeat what he’d told him there. Raymer said he’d kissed Darla goodnight on the cheek and “that was it,” but the homicide detectives who had interviewed him earlier wouldn’t believe him. “They think I’m a killer,” he complained in the recording. A few minutes later, Raymer backtracked, claiming he’d kissed Darla on previous evenings, but not that night. Then he went on to describe how she was lying in bed, listening to music and wearing a nightie. Playing his friendly buddy, Canfield asked if they ever met up at night. He said they did — sometimes in her room, sometimes in his, where she liked to watch his TV. What did they like to do together? He said they’d touched each other a few times. “She liked it,” Raymer told him. “You must have realized that this was potentially some pretty significant admissions by Mr. Raymer: You have a 10-year-old strangled, you’ve got the man in the bedroom directly in the hall across from her admitting that he had sexual contact with her?” Lockyer said. The retired officer agreed. “It was a lead, without a doubt.”
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STORY: "MANDEL: Appeal court hears buried interview that may exonerate convicted killer," by Michelle Mandel. published by The Toronto Sun, on June 26, 2024. (An award-winning writer with the Toronto Sun since 1984, (Michelle Mandelwrites about justice issues.)
GIST: "He should have been a prime suspect in the strangulation of a 10-year-old Toronto girl — but his taped incriminating statements were mysteriously buried for more than three decades."
While Timothy Rees was sent to prison for life.
Now 61, Rees was at the Ontario Court of Appeal on Wednesday when the long-secret, explosive recording was finally played in an open courtroom: James Raymer, the landlord who lived across the hall from Darla Thurrott’s bedroom, could be heard admitting to a police officer in 1989 that he’d kissed and sexually “played” with the girl in the past.
And on that night she was killed, he said he went into her room to kiss her goodnight — though he later backtracked and said it was on other nights — and had bumped into her when they were both going to the bathroom. He could even describe the colour of her night gown.
“I think a long time ago, I fell in love with her,” Raymer confessed to then-Const. George Clannfield.
Long retired, Clanfield was called as a witness at a hearing where Rees’s team at Innocence Canada is presenting fresh evidence they believe will exonerate him all these years later.
Blaming the passage of years, Clanfield said he doesn’t recall anything about the interview. His memo books have not been located. But while he was just a self-described “gofer” seconded to homicide at the time, he agreed with lawyer James Lockyer that he would have certainly reported Raymer’s “holy, goodness gracious” admissions.
“None of this was in his testimony, either at the preliminary hearing or trial — and yet you would have passed this information on to the investigating officers, am I right?” the lawyer asked.
“I would have told them, for sure. I cannot see why I would not,” he said. “You cannot doubt the implications of this. Gofer or not, I’m still a policeman.”
So why was none of this ever disclosed to Rees’s defence lawyers at the time?
Rees, 25, was partying with Darla’s parents that night and ended up sleeping over. As one of four men in the house that night — there was also her dad, a basement tenant and Raymer — he volunteered saliva and hair samples. After being arrested for two assaults two months later, the coke addict confessed under questioning that he’d strangled Darla — a confession he later retracted.
Rees was convicted in 1990 of second-degree murder and sentenced to life with no parole for 15 years. He spent 19 years behind bars before he was released on day parole and has been on full parole since 2016. That was a momentous year for other reasons: Innocence Canada adopted his case and the incriminating recording of the landlord, who has since died, was found by the Toronto Police cold-case homicide squad.
In August 2023, Attorney General Arif Virani referred Rees’s case back to the Court of Appeal after an extensive review found a “miscarriage of justice likely occurred.”
The 30-minute cassette tape was recorded at the police station following the discovery of Darla’s body in her Etobicoke bedroom on the morning of March 17, 1989. Clanfield started the recording after returning with Raymer from the bathroom and the officer began by asking him to repeat what he’d told him there.
Raymer said he’d kissed Darla goodnight on the cheek and “that was it,” but the homicide detectives who had interviewed him earlier wouldn’t believe him. “They think I’m a killer,” he complained in the recording.
A few minutes later, Raymer backtracked, claiming he’d kissed Darla on previous evenings, but not that night. Then he went on to describe how she was lying in bed, listening to music and wearing a nightie.
Playing his friendly buddy, Canfield asked if they ever met up at night. He said they did — sometimes in her room, sometimes in his, where she liked to watch his TV.
What did they like to do together? He said they’d touched each other a few times. “She liked it,” Raymer told him.
“You must have realized that this was potentially some pretty significant admissions by Mr. Raymer: You have a 10-year-old strangled, you’ve got the man in the bedroom directly in the hall across from her admitting that he had sexual contact with her?” Lockyer said.
The retired officer agreed. “It was a lead, without a doubt.”
The hearing continues on Thursday."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
