46 year-old wrongful conviction still being reviewed in Canada

While the guilty party is still free

A child witness who gave damning testimony at Steven Truscott's 1959 murder trial revealed years later to colleagues that she lied to investigators and that the "wrong guy" was behind bars, court heard Wednesday. Jocelyn Gaudet's claim that Truscott set a date to meet her in the woods the same evening 12-year-old Lynne Harper was raped and strangled was powerful ammunition for the prosecution - they successfully argued that the 14-year-old boy had sex on his mind and set his sights on Harper after failing to meet Gaudet.

In 1966, just days before the Supreme Court embarked on a review of Truscott's case, Gaudet confessed her secret to a group of fellow resident nurses at a Montreal psychiatric hospital, court heard. Sandra Stolzmann described Wednesday how Gaudet admitted she lied under oath when she testified at Truscott's trial 47 years ago, and even suggested to her friends that a man who had been spotted driving a yellow car in the area should have been considered a prime suspect. "'They've got the wrong guy, they've got the wrong guy. They've got to be looking for the guy in the yellow car,"' Gaudet told the women as she became visibly upset, Stolzmann testified.

Truscott steadfastly professed his innocence at trial and told prosecutors he saw Harper get into a passing car after he took his schoolmate for a bike ride in rural Clinton, Ont., on the evening of June 9.

When Gaudet was asked why she lied to police, she replied, "I was the old girlfriend and I didn't want them to know I as following them," said Stolzmann. Stolzmann's version of events was seconded by fellow nursing co-worker Elizabeth Hulbert, who also told court she was in the room and heard Gaudet say, "I was a witness and I lied."

When pressed by her colleagues to tell the truth before the Supreme Court, Gaudet said she would fake a psychiatric illness and be committed to an institution before admitting that she lied, Hulbert testified. Both women said Wednesday it was their belief that Gaudet did just that, although neither had first-hand knowledge of Gaudet ever being institutionalized.

When it became clear Gaudet wasn't going to testify before the Supreme Court, Stolzmann said she went to the RCMP. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled 8-1 against granting Truscott a new trial.

In preparing the report that concluded there was likely a miscarriage of justice in the Truscott case, Justice Fred Kaufman interviewed Gaudet, but the woman has not testified at the judicial review of Truscott's conviction.

The ubiquity of hitchhikers in post-war, rural Ontario was also explored Wednesday in the plain-spoken testimony of a childhood friend of Harper's - evidence that drew laughs from the spectator's gallery and even smiles from the Appeal Court justices hearing the case. "We usually just stuck our thumbs out and we usually got a drive to town," Catherine Beamer said before adding she and Harper did just that "at least 15 to 20 times" as young teens. Truscott's insistence that Harper thumbed a ride after they parted fell on deaf ears in 1959 - the girl's parents insisted their daughter would never hitchhike. "I don't think anybody ever gave it a second thought. It was just a way of life," Beamer said of hitchhiking.

The woman testified that she was friends with both Truscott and Harper, and outside the court expressed her hope that justice finally be done in the case. "Steve needs justice as does Lynne, because it's as much about justice for her as it is for him," said Beamer, who fondly recalled Harper as a close companion and "a little bit pushy." "She was my friend, and I miss her."

Truscott was convicted on Sept. 30, 1959, for Harper's rape and murder, becoming the youngest person in Canada ever sentenced to death. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1960, the same year his first appeal was denied. He served nine years in jail before being released on parole in 1969. Truscott has steadfastly professed his innocence. The review of the 46-year-old murder conviction is expected to stretch into next week.

Report here


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