The North Vancouver man who spent nearly 27 years in jail after being wrongfully convicted for a string of sexual offences started his civil suit against the Crown in Canada’s top court Thursday.
The Supreme Court of Canada will hear if Ivan Henry’s charter rights were unconstitutionally violated after the Crown failed to disclose relevant information during his original trial, and if he has the right to seek money damages.
Henry, 67, was imprisoned from 1983 to 2009 after the courts found him guilty of 10 sexual assaults, was declared a dangerous offender and was sentenced to an indefinite number of years behind bars. But during his trial, the prosecution did not disclose the discovery of DNA evidence, the existence of an alternative suspect and how similar sexual assaults continued after Henry’s arrest.
In 2002, police re-investigated the unsolved sexual assaults and obtained DNA matches for the alternative suspect, who then pleaded guilty to several of the assaults. Eight years later, the B.C. Court of Appeal overturned Henry’s convictions and entered acquittals on all counts.
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association have jointly intervened in the case.
So far, the Crown has argued Henry’s claim should not proceed because he is unable to show the implicated prosecutors had acted maliciously. The province’s appeal court agreed, but Henry was granted leave to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, which agreed to hear his case last May.
Henry has served more time in jail than any other Canadian wrongfully convicted of a crime.
The case could potentially result in Henry being awarded a multimillion-dollar settlement, if he wins.
— With files from Jane Seyd
