New trial sought in Stafford murder

TORON TO • The man convicted of helping to kill eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford seven years ago will ask Ontario’s top court for a new trial Monday, trying to pin the blame on his accomplice.

Michael Rafferty was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 with no chance of parole for 25 years for kidnapping, sexual assault causing bodily harm and first-degree murder in the death of the Woodstock, Ont., girl.

His former girlfriend, Te rr i - Ly nn e Mc Cl i n t i c , pleaded guilty in 2010 to first-degree murder, initially telling police Rafferty killed the girl, but testifying at his trial that she delivered the fatal blows.

Rafferty’s lawyer, Paul Calarco, argues in documents filed with the Court of Appeal for Ontario that the judge made several errors, including failing to warn the jury against relying on the testimony of McClintic, “a person of unsavoury character, with a serious history of violence and lying.”

The Crown’s case was strongest on the kidnapping count, Calarco concedes, but because forensic evidence could not prove a sexual assault, that conviction was almost entirely dependent on McClintic’s version of events, he argues.

“While the Crown had some evidence against Mr. Rafferty, the worst aspects of the case depend almost entirely on McClintic’s evidence,” the lawyer writes.

“It was essential the trial judge give a clear, sharp warning against relying on her in the absence of substantial corroboration.”

But the Crown argues there was in fact a significant amount of corroboration.

“Her testimony was supported by a compelling body of confirmatory evidence, including surveillance video footage; cellphone records; cell tower location data; forensic evidence; and analysis of the victim’s blood and DNA from the appellant’s car,” Crown lawyers Howard Leibovich and Randy Schwartz write in documents filed with the court.

Rafferty did not testify at trial, but argues in his appeal that he was “at most” an accessory after the fact to murder — a concept the judge did not put to the jury.

His actions proven by evidence other than McClintic’s testimony, such as cleaning the scene, destroying evidence and giving a false alibi, are “equally consistent with being an accessory,” Calarco writes.

McClintic told the court a horrifying story of a drugaddled couple abducting a young girl at random for the man’s sexual pleasure, then killing her with inconceivable brutality. She claimed Rafferty was directing her every step of the way, ordering her to snatch a young girl for him, making her buy a hammer and garbage bags, then getting her to help him clean up at the murder scene.

The Crown at trial argued it didn’t matter whether McClintic or Rafferty physically killed Tori — he was guilty because they acted together.