January 26, 2002
Hadley inquest in jury's hands
Deliberations begin
By SARAH GREEN -- Toronto SunThe five jurors at the coroner's inquest into the murder-suicide of Gillian and Ralph Hadley began their deliberations yesterday after three months of testimony.
Coroner's counsel Al O'Marra said there was no "failure or complacency" in the criminal justice system on Feb. 28, 2000 when Hadley was released on bail after being charged with stalking his estranged wife.
O'Marra said everyone at the bail hearing was concerned for Gillian's safety, but no one -- including an expert at the inquest -- could predict Hadley would shoot Gillian, then himself four months later.
"Nobody could have predicted the evil that generated in the heart of Ralph Hadley," O'Marra said in his final submission.
O'Marra said the province should look into the use of electronic monitoring as a bail condition in domestic violence cases.
Other lawyers want the jury to endorse the 213 recommendations from the 1998 inquest into the murder-suicide of former lovers Arlene May and Randy Iles.
"Please consider ways of educating the community that violence is not the solution to disappointment and stress," Coroner Bonita Porter said.
The Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Housing recommended bail be refused in domestic violence cases.
"When mistakes are made, women die," lawyer Geri Sanson said.
Copyright © 2002, Canoe, a division of Netgraphe Inc.