Canadian gay village serial killer receives life sentence

A CANADIAN judge has sentenced ‘warped’ serial killer Bruce McArthur to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

McArthur pleaded guilty last week to eight counts of first-degree murder. The 67-year-old former landscaper sexually assaulted, killed and dismembered men he met in Toronto’s Gay Village over seven years.

Justice John McMahon called McArthur a sexual predator who killed for his own ‘warped, sick gratification’ and said the victims suffered slow and painful deaths.

He called their dismemberments ‘pure evil’, but said the guilty plea spared a jury four months of graphic and gruesome evidence that would have probably required counselling after. McArthur has been in prison since January last year when investigators discovered dismembered remains in planters at home he used as storage for his business.

He also staged photos of some of his victims after they died, posing corpses in fur coats and putting cigars in their mouths.

McArthur pleaded guilty to killing Andrew Kinsman, Selim Esen, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Soroush Mahmudi, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi and Kirushna Kanagaratnam between 2010 and 2017.

Criminal experts say it is unusual for someone to become a serial killer later in life, but the prosecution said there is no evidence of earlier murders.