PUBLISHER'S NOTE: It is inconceivable to me that Tim Rees was put on trial for murder punishable by life imprisonment without him or his lawyer even being told before the trial that the police had taken an incriminating statement from an obvious suspect. The result: An utter miscarriage of justice that hung over Tim Rees until the charge was thankfully quashed earlier today. Michelle Mandel, a seasoned Toronto Sun reporter, told the story beautifully in an article on the Court of Appeal hearings published on June 27, 2024. You will find this disturbing story (a truly 'must read' at:
https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/6657691178451734291
This is one of the most unfair prosecutions that I have ever seen - in which the police and the prosecution denied him the evidence that would have allowed him to remain the innocent human being that he was, that allowed him to be sent to prison as a murderer for what should have been the best years of his life, that kept him on parole, as a murderer, for all these years - a 36 year ordeal, that's not even over yet. The conviction may be quashed, but the appeal court has left opened the door to the prosecutors to proceed with a new trial, That's obscene. Ontario's prosecutors put him in this awful situation by putting him through a trial that we know now was terribly unfair - and now the Ontario Court of Appeal has entrusted Ontario's prosecutors with steering is fate. That's unreal. That's cruel. Shame on the justices of the Ontario Court for not having the compassion to paying back Tim Rees for the thinkable ordeal Ontario's criminal justice system put him through. Their decision should have been full of wrath at the manner in the way he was treated in a criminal justice system we are supposed to respect - but cannot respect, given the manner in which Tim Rees has been treated. The Court, as it was empowered to do, should have acquitted him, and apologized to him. That's all. Game over. Period.
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: (From the release: "Tim Rees, who is now 62 years old, said today: “For the first time in 36 years, I do not carry the burden of the conviction for murdering Darla. I did not murder her, and today’s ruling of the Court of Appeal is a big relief. I feel like my life can start all over again.”
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: From the release: "Darla was strangled in her bed at her home in Etobicoke on March 16, 1989. She was found by her mother in the morning. Tim Rees, then 25 years old, who had visited Darla’s parents the evening before and stayed overnight, was convicted of the murder on September 15, 1990, and sentenced to life imprisonment."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: From the release: "The compelling feature of his application was an undisclosed tape-recorded statement of the landlord who lived in the same home and slept in the room immediately across the hall from Darla. The landlord, since deceased, had given a highly incriminating statement to the police hours after the murder but the defence knew nothing of it. The landlord was able to testify with impunity, and falsely. that he had never had a relationship with Darla and had not been in her bedroom on the night she was murdered." If the missing tape recording had been disclosed in 1989, it is questionable whether Mr. Rees would ever have been charged, let alone convicted of Darla’s murder."
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INNOCENCE CANADA PRESS RELEASE: Sent out on Thursday, November 27, 2025, under the heading: "After 36 Years, a Toronto Man’s Conviction for the Murder in Etobicoke of a 10-Year-Old Girl is Quashed by the Ontario Court of Appeal.
GIST: "Today, the Ontario Court of Appeal quashed Tim Rees’s conviction for 1989 murder of 10-year- old Darla Thurott and ordered a new trial.
Darla was strangled in her bed at her home in Etobicoke on March 16, 1989. She was found by her mother in the morning. Tim Rees, then 25 years old, who had visited Darla’s parents the evening before and stayed overnight, was convicted of the murder on September 15, 1990, and sentenced to life imprisonment. His appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed on June 16, 1994, and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his case. After 26 years in prison, he was released on parole in October 2016, and he remained on parole until today.
Innocence Canada adopted Mr. Rees’s case in 2016 and in 2018 filed an application alleging that he had been wrongly convicted with the then Minister of Justice, Jody Wilson-Raybould.
The compelling feature of his application was an undisclosed tape-recorded statement of the landlord who lived in the same home and slept in the room immediately across the hall from Darla. The landlord, since deceased, had given a highly incriminating statement to the police hours after the murder but the defence knew nothing of it. The landlord was able to testify with impunity, and falsely. that he had never had a relationship with Darla and had not been in her bedroom on the night she was murdered.
If the missing tape recording had been disclosed in 1989, it is questionable whether Mr. Rees would ever have been charged, let alone convicted of Darla’s murder.
In a remarkable twist, in 1989 it was one or more members of the Toronto Service who never revealed the existence of the missing tape-recording, and in 2016 it was members of the Toronto Police Homicide Cold Squad who found the missing tape-recording after they had been assigned to respond to Innocence Canada’s request for access to the original investigative files.
Tim Rees, who is now 62 years old, said today: “For the first time in 36 years, I do not carry the burden of the conviction for murdering Darla. I did not murder her, and today’s ruling of the Court of Appeal is a big relief. I feel like my life can start all over again.”
Innocence Canada counsel James Lockyer, who was one of the lawyers who argued the appeal, said today: “The decision of the Court of Appeal is an important step for Tim Rees. He was a victim of extraordinary non-disclosure. He has always claimed his innocence and testified to his innocence at his trial and before the Court of Appeal. Fortunately, his parole officer believed he was wrongly convicted because, without that, he would likely not have been given parole in 2016 and would still be in prison today.”
Jerome Kennedy, also one of the lawyers who argued the appeal, said today: “The Court of Appeal’s decision is a huge and welcome relief for Tim Rees. We at Innocence Canada are proud to have helped him through this ordeal of his wrongful conviction.” (Not surprisingly the motto of Innocence Canada is ' Justice for the wrongly convicted.'
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;
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