Woman charged in death of Sydney man

SYDNEY — A 31-year-old woman has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of a Sydney man in 2019.

Mallory Ann Paul of Millbrook is alleged to have committed the crime between March 14-17, 2019. The victim, Douglas MacLeod Barrett, 80, was found in his Terrace Street home on March 22, 2019.

Paul is presently being held at the Nova Institute for Women, a federal prison in Truro, and is scheduled to appear in a Sydney provincial court Friday by video. At the time of the offence, Paul was living in Sydney.

In September 2015, Barrett was stabbed in the back in his home by a then 23-year-old sex worker who was charged and convicted of assault causing bodily harm.

The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial be held. In reviewing the case after the appeal decision, the Crown decided not to proceed with a second prosecution.

At the time of the sentence, provincial court Judge Alain Bégin said the woman took a knife and went upstairs to the bedroom and stabbed Barrett in reacting to rumours that he was a bad john. The judge said the woman was alone downstairs in the home and could have easily walked out the door.

Bégin said while the court cannot condone vigilante justice and that Barrett was indeed the victim in the case, he was also a predator.

“He tried to portray himself as a Good Samaritan but the reality is different,” said Bégin, noting Barrett provided sex workers in his home with clean needle kits.

He said the relationship between a sex worker and a john is one of power and that while Barrett took advantage of that relationship, he could not condone what the woman had done.

Barrett suffered a punctured lung and spent a week in hospital as a result of the stabbing.

Meanwhile, Cape Breton Regional Police are continuing to investigate three other recent homicides in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.

A 60-year-old North Sydney man was found dead in his Brook Street home in September 2020.

Investigators are also probing a fatal assault of a 51-yearold Glace Bay man in January. Police were called to the victim's home on Brookland Street having received a report that a suspect had entered the home and assaulted the man before fleeing. The victim died in hospital in Halifax.

Also in January, a 42-yearold man was found injured on a sidewalk on Mitchell Avenue in Dominion. He later died of his injuries.