Families of Robert Pickton’s victims suing police and murderer’s siblings

The horrific saga of Canada's most prolific serial killer is headed back to the courts in a lawsuit filed by his victims' relatives against, police, the B.C. government and two of the murderer's siblings.

Robert (Willie) Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six counts of second-degree murder in the killing of women, mostly prostitutes, he picked up on Vancouver's drug-ridden Downtown Eastside. But he's thought to have killed dozens more, having confessed to a jail-cell plant to 49 murders. The remains or DNA traces of 33 victims were found on his suburban Vancouver pig farm.

Now children of victims Dianne Rock, Sarah de Vries, Cynthia Feliks and Yvonne Boen, have filed suit against the RCMP, Vancouver Police Department and City of Vancouver, the B.C. Justice Ministry and Crown prosecutors, alleging negligence in the way the investigation was handled, according to The Tyee.

The suit also names older brother David Pickton and sister Linda Wright, who co-owned the sprawling Port Coquitlam property where Robert Pickton killed and dismembered his victims.

"David Pickton and Linda Wright were at all times aware that Robert Pickton was bringing Vancouver-based sex workers to the Pickton Property and causing them harm," documents filed with B.C. Supreme Court allege.

"David Pickton and Linda Wright knew that Robert Pickton and others tortured and killed sex workers and other persons at the Pickton Property, and were aware that Robert Pickton represented a danger to persons attending the Pickton property. The Pickton Siblings, and each of them, owed a duty of care ... as occupiers of the Pickton Property ... and accordingly were negligent or grossly negligent."

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There have been allegations Pickton did not act alone but no evidence surfaced in his trial implicating his siblings.

However, the suit alleges David Pickton lied to police about his brother in an effort to hinder the prosecution of his brother in a 1997 attempted-murder case launched when a woman, naked and bleeding from stab wounds, escaped the pig farm. The Crown dropped the case because prosecutors said the woman, a prostitute, wasn't a credible witness.

The claims made in the suit have not been proven in court and the defendants have not yet filed statements of defence.

Pickton preyed on the Downtown Eastside's desperate women for years. He was not arrested until 2002 after an outcry about the long list of missing women spurred the RCMP and Vancouver police to work together.

Families of the missing women complained police didn't pursue the disappearances became the women were prostitutes.

An inquiry by former judge and B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal concluded the police's botched investigation allowed Pickton to operate for years.

"I have come to the conclusion that there was systemic bias by the police," Oppal wrote in his report, as The Tyee noted. "It was important for me to understand the underlying causes of police failures.

"The women were poor -- they were addicted, vulnerable, Aboriginal. They did not receive equal treatment by police. As a group, they were dismissed.... These women were vulnerable; they were treated as throwaways."

Neil Chantler, one of the lawyers acting for the victims' families, said Oppal's conclusions form the basis of the suit.

"There are clear findings of misconduct, poor conduct by police officers, and arguably negligence in Oppal's report -- so there's no doubt these claims are founded in large part on what Oppal found after nine months of hearings," Chantler told The Tyee. "Of course, they hope it will bring closure. It's the final step in what's been a long process."

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Chantler said Pickton's siblings were named because under B.C.'s Occupiers Liability Act, a property-owner can be held responsible for harm caused on their property, The Tyee reported.

The property itself, now cleared of all evidence of Pickton's presence, likely won't figure in any future legal settlement with the victims. The B.C. government put a $10-million mortgage on it in 2003 to help cover the cost of Pickton's seven-member legal team. CBC News reported in 2010 that the defence ended up costing $12 million.

The deep pockets in this case belong to taxpayers because the suit alleges Pickton could have been collared much sooner. The statement of claim names specific officers, as well as the Crown for setting Pickton free in 1997.

Chantler said this week's suit is just the first, but added the families hope it will push the government to move faster to implement the recommendations Oppal made in his report last December.

"There are more," he told The Tyee. "We're working with some other families on bringing claims as well, and there will be more filed.

"They'd hoped this would be unnecessary, but this is what needs to be done in order to bring them that closure."