B.C. man denies killing daughters

VANCOUVER — A Vancouver Island man testified Wednesday that he didn’t kill his two daughters and denied he tried to take his own life on the day they died.

Instead, Andrew Berry’s lawyer Kevin McCullough presented a different theory to a Vancouver jury.

Berry was a problem gambler who owed a lot of money to bad people, McCullough said.

He said his client will testify that he was attacked in his apartment on Christmas Day 2017 and when he came to, six-year-old Chloe Berry and fouryear-old sister Aubrey Berry were dead.

Berry took the stand in his own defence, charged with two counts of second-degree murder.

A jury has already heard the children were stabbed to death in Berry’s Oak Bay apartment and that police found him injured in the tub.

“Did you kill Chloe and Aubrey,” asked defence lawyer Kevin McCullough.

“No, I did not,” Berry answered.

“Did you attempt suicide on Christmas 2017?” “No, I did not.”

Berry testified that he had a happy life with the two girls.

He described going camping with them, reading books before bedtime and taking the girls to school. He talked of how their personalities changed as they grew.

Chloe was outgoing while Aubrey was shy, he said.

“(Chloe) would talk to anyone,” he said choking up. “She was not shy.”

Berry described Aubrey as a watcher.

“She wasn’t as easy as Chloe was,” he said. The court has already heard that Berry and the children’s mother had a difficult relationship coparenting the girls.

Sarah Cotton had testified previously that she had called the Children’s Ministry twice saying that Berry had sexually touched Aubrey, but police found no evidence the touching was sexual or criminal in nature.

Berry told the court that he did not sexually assault Aubrey.