Pickton brother in court in suit over sex assault
There was a time when Robert “Willie” Pickton was not notorious as one of Canada’s most despicable men and prolific serial killers, just a creepy dude on a creepy farm with unsavoury interests. But then, in 2002, came alarming charges of him killing women on his British Columbia pig farm and rendering their bodies in horrific ways.
He was accused of killing 49 women, formally charged with murdering 26 and convicted of six murders occurring at the notorious farm he co- owned with his brother, David Pickton.
A Vancouver court has been hearing this week the revelations had additional resonance for one woman: when the 55- year- old B. C. woman saw David Pickton’s face in TV news coverage she threw up, bleached her entire house and then went to the hospital, she testified in B. C. Supreme Court.
Her unusual reaction, court heard, was because she had been sexually assaulted by David Pickton a decade before his brother’s crimes were uncovered. She claims the revelation and close connection caused a mental breakdown, exasperating and enhancing damage caused by the assault.
She is now suing David Pickton, claiming psychological harm, financial loss from lost work and punitive compensation for damages accumulating since his conviction as well as unproven threats of rape and murder.
The trial is dredging up past horrors of the infamous murders, raising missed opportunities to discover Willie Pickton’s crimes and highlighting the difficulties of those with psychiatric troubles testifying in court when credibility before a jury is an important factor in any outcome.
David Pickton was convicted in 1992 of fondling the woman inside a trailer at a Burnaby, B. C., construction site. She said the assault ended when it was interrupted by someone at the trailer door.
“When he went to walk out the door, he said, ‘ I’m going to wape you.’ He couldn’t say the word ( with an) ‘ R.’ He said it twice,” she testified, grimacing. “He was laughing like crazy.”
Afterwards, a co- worker operating an excavation machine called her over and gave her a warning she said she believes was on David Pickton’s behalf.
“If you take this to court, they’re going to cut you up and chop you in so many pieces you’re never going to be found,” she testified the man said to her. It became an ominous statement in light of Willie Pickton’s subsequent murder convictions.
She said she knew nothing about the Port Coquitlam pig farm murders before news coverage began, but over months when facts were murky, she saw news reports featuring photographs of both brothers and the farm.
She said she believed David Pickton might have been an accused in the case, even though he was never accused or charged in connection with the murders.
At the civil trial this week, David Pickton’s lawyer, Ian Donaldson, called into question the woman’s account and grilled her about her history of psychiatric disorders.
Under questioning, she said she has had regular dealings with psychiatrists for nearly 30 years.
She agreed under cross- examination she occasionally binge-drank and used cocaine to cope with emotional issues.