Woman who sued Pickton for threats awarded $45k

A woman who was sexually assaulted by the brother of serial killer Robert Pickton says she is elated that she can once again walk tall after winning a lengthy court battle.

A B.C. Supreme Court jury ruled that David Pickton had inflicted psychological trauma on the woman after assaulting and threatening to rape and kill her more than two decades ago.

“It’s all over,” said the woman the morning after learning the verdict, which came late Tuesday following six hours of deliberations. “I’m free and I can stand tall again.”

Jurors awarded the 55-year-old woman $45,000, including $20,000 in punitive damages that her lawyer said is intended as a deterrent. Pickton was convicted of sexual assault in 1992, fined $1,000 and sentenced to a year of probation.

The woman testified that Pickton cornered her inside a trailer on a construction site where they worked, pressed her up against a wall and groped her genitals over her jeans. After being interrupted by a co-worker, Pickton allegedly threatened to rape and kill her. After filing a police report about the 1991 incident, a machine operator who was friends with Pickton threatened she would be “cut into pieces” if she didn’t leave town, she said.

“When he first started speaking on the stand, I hadn’t heard him in so many years ... I didn’t know the effect it was going to have physically on me,” the woman said following the verdict.

“I didn’t want him to see me afraid, (but) I’m not afraid any more,” she added.

“I don’t have to have that overwhelming feeling that I’m not being heard or that I don’t count.”

The woman’s lawyer, Jason Gratl, said his client was hospitalized in 1999 and 2002 for mental breakdowns. She testified that she vomited when she saw Pickton on TV in 2002, after his brother was linked to a series of murders of women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Pickton declined to comment when contacted about the verdict.