Supreme Court rejects appeal from doctor who hired hit man to kill patient
Canada's top court will not hear a complaint from a medical doctor who hired a hit man to kill a young patient who had accused him of sexual abuse.
The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed Thursday an application for leave to appeal from Josephakis Charalambous, with costs. As is standard practice, the court did not release reasons for its decision.
Charalambous had appealed to have all sexual references removed from his prison record, arguing his first-degree murder conviction did not have a sexual component.
He claimed he was wrongly labelled a "sex offender," a status that has affected his prison conditions, security classification and treatment programs. Correctional Service Canada relied on allegations rather than proven facts, he had argued.
Charalambous, who is serving a life sentence in B.C., was a family physician when he contracted the killing of two young patients, according to court documents.
In 1991, 19-year-old Sian Simmonds and her sister, Katie Simmonds, lodged complaints to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, accusing Charalambous of inappropriate sexual behaviour. Charalambous had been their family doctor for 10 years.
The college scheduled a disciplinary hearing for March 1993, but just weeks before, on Jan. 27, Sian Simmonds was shot and killed by David Schlender, a hired hit man who made his way into her home by saying he had scratched her car.
Her sister was not home at the time.
Contract killing
In November 1994, Charalambous was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole for 25 years. The trial judge ruled it was a contract killing he had arranged through an acquaintance, Brian West, to prevent the Simmonds sisters from testifying before the college.
Since Charalambous's incarceration in 1995, the correctional service has made a number of administrative decisions based on past allegations of sexual misconduct involving other patients. In 1989, he was found guilty by the college of "infamous conduct" (the term used for dishonourable or disgraceful conduct) for his relationship with a former patient.
That patient had been under his care from the age of 12 to 14. When she was 15, they began to cohabit and became sexually involved, and she later became his wife. Between 1985 and 1998, Charalambous was also charged with eight counts of sexual assault, seven related to complaints from former patients, according to court documents.
All of the charges were eventually stayed, including six that were stayed after he had exhausted all appeals related to his murder conviction.
Federal Court ruled against inmate
Charalambous has challenged the inclusion of sexual references in his record through grievances to the correctional service, as well as through a judicial review process at the Federal Court. All have been unsuccessful.
He had argued there was no sexual component in his crime, making his case "distinguishable from cases where death is caused to the victim by a person while committing or attempting to commit sexual assault."
The Federal Court ruling from Justice Luc Martineau said while the correctional service is required to take all reasonable steps to ensure that any information about an offender that it uses is as accurate, up to date and complete as possible, "that does not mean that CSC must reinvestigate information obtained from reliable sources such as provincial ministries, police forces and the courts," the ruling reads.
