Guy Paul Morin
Guy Paul Morin is a Canadian who was wrongly convicted of the October 1984 rape and murder of his nine-year-old next-door neighbour, Christine Jessop of Queensville, north of Toronto, Ontario. DNA testing led to a subsequent overturning of this verdict. As of 2014, no one else has been charged with Jessop's murder.[1]
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Murder of Christine Jessop
On 3 October 1984, Jessop was dropped off at her home from her school bus with both of her parents out.[1] She was last seen by the owner of a nearby convenience store where she had gone to buy bubble gum. Her body was discovered on 31 December, nearly three months later. She had been sexually assaulted and murdered.[2]
Trials
Morin was arrested for Jessop's murder in April 1985.[2] He was later acquitted at his first trial in 1986.[3] The Crown exercised its right to appeal the verdict on the grounds that the trial judge made a fundamental error prejudicing the Crown's right to a fair trial.[4] In 1987 the Court of Appeal ordered a new trial.[5] The retrial was delayed until 1992 by Morin's own appeals based on the Crown's non-disclosure of exculpatory evidence and by other issues, including the double jeopardy rule.[5]
Morin was convicted at his second trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment.[6] Unlike others convicted of murdering children after sexually abusing them, he was kept in the general population throughout his time in prison.[7] Up until his release, he was held at Kingston Penitentiary.[7]
Acquittal and aftermath
Improvements in DNA testing led to a test in 1995 which excluded Morin as the murderer.[8] Morin's appeal of his conviction was allowed (i.e., the conviction was reversed), and a directed verdict of acquittal entered in the appeal.[5]
An inquiry culminating in the Kaufman Report into Morin's case also uncovered evidence of police and prosecutorial misconduct, and of misrepresentation of forensic evidence by the Ontario Centre of Forensic Sciences.[5][9] Christine Jessop’s murderer is still unknown.
See also
References
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External links
- Commission on Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin, report from the Ontario Attorney General
- Use Canadian English from June 2014
- All Wikipedia articles written in Canadian English
- Use dmy dates from September 2010
- Year of birth missing (living people)
- Living people
- Overturned convictions in Canada
- Franco-Ontarian people
- People from York Region
- People wrongly convicted of rape
- People wrongfully convicted of murder
