Tuesday, November 6, 2001
Hubby bragged he beat wife: Lover
The other man testifies at coroner's inquest
By SARAH GREEN, TORONTO SUNRalph Hadley boasted to his wife's lover of beating Gillian Hadley moments after finding the couple in bed together, a coroner's inquest heard yesterday.
Ralph burst into the basement bedroom of Clark Kostyshyn's Ajax home on Jan. 7, 2000, to find his wife with the man she met in a club about two months earlier.
"The look on his face -- I don't know the words to describe it," said Kostyshyn, 42. "It was almost close to a smile."
The Hadleys left together, but Ralph returned minutes later to ask for Kostyshyn's phone number saying he would need it for his divorce lawyer.
"He started bragging ... 'I just thought I'd let you know I just battered my wife around,'" Kostyshyn said.
Kostyshyn's reaction caused Ralph to back down from his story, saying he had only slapped Gillian outside the house.
Gillian later told Kostyshyn that Ralph had slapped her across the face before grabbing her hair and banging her head against the side of the house.
Gillian also told her boyfriend that Ralph forcibly dragged her to his car, but she escaped when her husband went up to Kostyshyn's door to ask for the phone number.
Kostyshyn testified he had "no idea" Gillian was married at the time. He said he only knew she had previously been married and had children.
"She was afraid she would lose me if I knew she was (living) ... with him," Kostyshyn said. "The marriage was over. Ralph knew it."
Ralph telephoned Kostyshyn later that day and "played down the whole situation" during their hour-long conversation. Kostyshyn said he initially felt sorry for Ralph until he began criticizing Gillian and complaining of his bruised pride.
" 'What am I supposed to tell the boys at work,'" Kostyshyn said Ralph asked. "That's when I started to see this couldn't be a true love situation."
Ralph was charged in the Jan. 7 assault and ordered to stay away from Gillian. Ralph spent three nights in jail in February for harassing her.
OUT ON BAIL
Kostyshyn's relationship with Gillian -- made difficult by Ralph's harassment and other meddling family members -- continued until her death on June 20, Ralph snuck into Gillian's home that morning and shot her before killing himself.
Kostyshyn said he and Gillian were shocked when Ralph won bail on the harassment charge, but she was more concerned for her children's safety than her own.
"This was a man who had already broken limited restrictions," Kostyshyn said. "Why would anybody think he would abide by more restrictions?"
Copyright © 2001, Canoe Limited Partnership.