Ivan Henry, a man wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and imprisoned for 27 years, has been ordered to pay $375,000 to each of five women who filed a civil lawsuit against him. Despite his criminal acquittal, Henry was found liable in the civil case, which stemmed from alleged assaults in the early 1980s. Justice Miriam Gropper ruled that while Henry should not have been convicted in the criminal case, the civil standard of proof, 'balance of probabilities,' supported the finding that he was responsible for the assaults.
A man who spent 27 years in prison before being exonerated of wrongful conviction has been ordered by a British Columbia Supreme Court judge to pay $375,000 each to five women who sued him for sexual assault . Ivan Henry was convicted of 10 counts of sexual assault in 1983, but he was released after the B.C. Court of Appeal overturned his conviction and acquitted him in 2010.
Five women filed a civil lawsuit against Henry, alleging he sexually assaulted them in their Vancouver homes in the early 1980s. The plaintiffs are identified in the ruling by their initials, with descriptions of their sexual assaults in their ground-floor or basement suites between May 1981 and June 1982. Henry represented himself at his criminal trial in 1983, and he was given an indefinite sentence as a dangerous offender, but he was released and later awarded $8 million in his own civil lawsuit against the City of Vancouver and the provincial and federal governments. Justice Miriam Gropper's ruling released Wednesday says the court in Henry's wrongful conviction lawsuit found Crown prosecutors had 'seriously infringed' on his right to a fair trial, demonstrating a 'shocking disregard' for his Charter rights. Gropper's ruling states that evidence not disclosed to Henry 'would have likely resulted in his acquittal at his 1983 criminal trial, and the avoidance of sentencing as a dangerous offender.' Some of that evidence 'included the large volume of material statements made by the various complainants, including the five plaintiffs,' Gropper's ruling says. Gropper, however, found Henry liable in the civil lawsuit, saying in her ruling 'it is more likely than not that he was their attacker and performed the sexual assaults … on a balance of probabilities.' Civil cases and criminal cases have 'different standards of proof,' the ruling says, and acquittals in crimes that weren't proven beyond a reasonable doubt do not prevent alleged victims from filing lawsuits. 'An acquittal is not a bar to a civil suit,' the ruling says. Gropper ruled that she doesn't disagree with the findings of the court that acquitted Henry, stating he should not have been convicted or spent any time in jail. 'Although I have found Mr. Henry to be liable for his sexual assaults of the plaintiffs, he was acquitted of the criminal charges after he served 27 years in federal custody,' the ruling says. 'He has not gone unpunished.
SEXUAL ASSAULT WRONGFUL CONVICTION CIVIL LAWSUIT CRIMINAL ACQUITTAL BC SUPREME COURT
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