Crown withdraws murder charge against Toronto man who spent 23 years in prison
CBC
Prosecutors have withdrawn a second-degree murder charge against a man who spent 23 years in prison for the killing of a 10-year-old girl in 1989.
Ontario’s court of appeal set aside the conviction against Timothy Rees, 62, last month and ordered a new trial into the complex case, which includes recanted confessions, accusations of police conspiracy and mishandled evidence.
It came after two former federal justice ministers said a “miscarriage of justice” had likely occurred during Rees’s original trial more than 30 years ago.
The decision however fell on the Crown to decide whether to proceed with a new trial.
Prosecutors said Thursday that in light of the appeal ruling and the passage of time, it was no longer in the public interest to try the case.
Rees was found guilty in 1990 of second-degree murder in the killing of Darla Thurrott and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years.
He challenged his conviction but the appeal was dismissed in 1994, and the Supreme Court declined to hear his case.
Rees was released on day parole in 2009 and later granted full parole.
The new appeal turned on a recording of a conversation between an officer and the landlord of the building, which police had not disclosed.
On the recording, the landlord, who lived in the same home as Darla and her family, denied killing the girl and "made some statements suggesting prior sexual contact with her," the decision said.
It said he also made comments that suggested he had encountered Darla on the night of her death, and others that denied he had.
The fact that the tape had not been disclosed affected the fairness of the trial, the court ruled, by depriving the defence of material to further advance its theory of a third-party suspect.
Last month, Rees choked back tears as he spoke with reporters, maintaining his innocence decades after Thurrott’s death.
“I did not kill Darla. I am innocent and it had nothing to do with me,” said Rees at the office of his lawyer James Lockyer.
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