Pickton victims’ families denied application to intervene in RCMP’s plan to destroy evidence

A Supreme Court judge dismissed applications by Robert Pickton’s victims’ families to intervene in court proceedings over the RCMP’s plans to destroy evidence from the investigation into the serial killer.

Thirteen people had applied for “intervenor” status together, which would have granted them the right to oversee the dispersal of evidence. The evidence included items that were seized from Pickton’s home in Port Coquitlam, currently held by the RCMP.

According to court documents, the plaintiffs wanted to intervene to “ensure that the evidence they need to prove their cases against Robert Pickton and (his brother,) David Pickton is not dispersed or destroyed.”

Documents show that the RCMP possesses 15,000 items seized from Pickton’s residence between Feb. 6, 2002, and Nov. 23, 2003.

The RCMP opposed the application, arguing that it has a legal obligation to hold onto evidence required for an investigation.

Mounties proposed that they could instead disperse items to 11 of the 13 plaintiffs.

“[The RCMP] will provide notice to each person who is the lawful owner or person lawfully entitled to the things seized, where the RCMP has identified an ownership or property interest in the items, for each relevant application,” the RCMP stated.

Presiding over the case, Justice Fritz Verhoeven says he agreed with the RCMP’s terms and dismissed the application.

“In my view, the potential interests of the plaintiffs in seized items can be fully accommodated within the process suggested by the RCMP,” said Verhoeven. “Granting the plaintiffs’ intervenor status is not necessary or appropriate. Doing so would expand the scope of the proceeding beyond the limits of the statutory scheme applicable … There is a more appropriate avenue to address their concerns, through their civil actions.”

However, Verhoeven said the families are to be notified of any RCMP applications to dispose of evidence and the court may grant them “a limited right of audience, if deemed necessary and appropriate.”

Lawyer Jason Gratl, who represents the victims’ relatives, said his clients are “not unhappy” with Monday’s decision, and the right to be notified and heard when appropriate is “sufficient” for their purposes.

Gratl’s clients are involved in nine lawsuits against the late killer and his brother, David Pickton.

The applicants had claimed the pending lawsuits gave them a direct interest in the outcome of the proceedings, in which the RCMP is applying for directions from the court about procedures for evidence destruction.

David Pickton reportedly did not take a position on the plaintiffs’ application.

Following an attack by another inmate in Québec’s maximum security Port-Cartier Institution, Robert Pickton died from his injuries in May.

Pickton was convicted in 2007 of the murders of six women. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years, the maximum sentence for second-degree murder in Canada.

The remains or DNA of 33 women, many of whom were taken from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, were found on Pickton’s farm, and he once bragged to an undercover police officer that he killed a total of 49 women.

–With files from The Canadian Press