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This is Robert Baltovich, the man who went through a similar conviction as Anthony.

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The wrongful conviction of Robert Baltovich is similar to Anthony's case. Something interesting is that there is a strong possibility that Bernardo was linked to Robert' case as well.

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This video goes into detail about the court processes of Anthony's case and lists the reasons for his wrongful conviction.

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Now that Mr. Hanemaayer has been acquitted, the victim and her mother speak up about how they feel now.

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It was a night that "ruined my life," the woman said, recalling how, when she was 15 and living in the Toronto area, an intruder attacked her in her bedroom, only running away when her mother came to the rescue.

Today, after years of nightmares and mistrust, she and her mother struggle anew with bitter, conflicting emotions.

Perhaps they sent an innocent man to prison when her mother identified the attacker as a local roofer, Anthony Hanemaayer. Paul Bernardo later owned up to the 1987 crime, and the woman, long haunted by the assault, wondered if she was lucky to escape a worse fate.

"I'm not dead. I'm not encased in concrete. I'm still here," the woman said yesterday in an interview, breaking two decades of silence.

After Mr. Bernardo confessed, an Ontario court exonerated Mr. Hanemaayer last month.

"I was a little surprised and honestly I'm still not sure how I feel," the woman said. "If it's Bernardo, I feel sorry for Anthony."

The woman's mother, who later married a Toronto police officer, still has trouble accepting that Mr. Bernardo assaulted her daughter. "She's washed her hands of it all. It was a hard time for both of us. She's done with it."

In a troubling revelation, the woman said that it was two years ago that the police informed her mother that Mr. Bernardo confessed to the assault. Mr. Hanemaayer, however, wasn't told then, depriving him of a chance to clear his name, his lawyers say.

"Probably two summers ago, they contacted my mother and let her know what was going on and about Bernardo," the woman said.

"It was through the police department, one of the police officers there ... They said that Bernardo was saying that he did it, that there had been a lot of evidence that wasn't out in the open that he knew about."

Mr. Bernardo implicated himself in April, 2006, to detectives visiting him at the Kingston Penitentiary.

By then, Mr. Hanemaayer had finished serving his sentence of two years minus a day. Two police officers questioned him about his recollections, but didn't tell him the reason for their visit.

It wasn't until late last year that defence lawyers learned of the Bernardo link by accident while researching another case.

The woman contemplated the scars the event left on her and on Mr. Hanemaayer.

"He says it's ruined his life. He can no more have a relationship. Well, I'm 36 and I'm still not married and I don't trust people," she said.

She and her mother lived for another six years at the same address. They changed the locks and she moved to another bedroom. Even now, if she wakes up too abruptly, she flashes back to the assault.

At the time of the Sept. 29, 1987, incident, her Scarborough home was less than a kilometre from where Mr. Bernardo lived on Sir Raymond Drive.

She was awakened shortly after 5 a.m. by a man who jumped on her bed and threatened her, saying he had a knife. She felt a sharp object against her neck. Then her mother came to her rescue, confronting the man, who roared at her "like a lion," she said at the time.

Her mother then played a key role in tracking down Mr. Hanemaayer because she felt the police were dragging their feet, the woman said. The mother gave a description of the attacker to a construction firm that had done work nearby, leading her to Mr. Hanemaayer, a 19-year-old labourer.

Some days later, the mother attended a public meeting where residents were warned about a rapist prowling Scarborough, who would later turn out to be Mr. Bernardo.

It was also at that meeting that the mother met a police investigator. They eventually married, although the woman says there was nothing improper because it happened after the case had gone to trial in 1989. "They didn't go into a relationship until much later," she said.

The family eventually sold the house and the mother separated from the police investigator.

They moved to another country for a number of reasons, but it didn't hurt to be in a place where people aren't familiar with the Bernardo name, the woman said.

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'I feel sorry' for acquitted man, Bernardo victim says

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It was a night that "ruined my life," the woman said, recalling how, when she was 15 and living in the Toronto area, an intruder attacked her in her bedroom, only running away when her mother came to the rescue. Today, after years of nightmares and mistrust, she and her mother struggle anew with bitter, conflicting emotions.

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Anthony was not awarded compensation and this article explains why he made that decision.

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Two men who were wrongfully convicted of crimes and later acquitted were denied compensation Wednesday by the Ontario government despite ordeals their lawyer said "completely wrecked" their lives.

Attorney General Chris Bentley said financial compensation only applied to "rare, unusual cases" and wasn't appropriate in the cases of Robert Baltovich and Anthony Hanemaayer.

"They have both been found not guilty as a result of the steps that the justice system has taken," Bentley said. "I actually think that speaks to one of the strengths of the justice system in the province of Ontario and in Canada generally."

Baltovich won an acquittal in 2008 for the murder of his girlfriend Elizabeth Bain, a crime for which he served eight years behind bars, while Hanemaayer served two years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault in 1987.

Lawyer James Lockyer sought compensation in both cases as well as an inquiry into why it took the province's top court so long to quash Baltovich's conviction. Calls for a public inquiry were also denied.

"The attorney general's decision today just demonstrates an indifference to the plight of these two men wrongfully convicted," Lockyer said. "It just seems to me to be an extraordinarily indifferent decision, as bad as anything, as unconscionable as anything I've run into for a while."

Civil suits possible

Neither Baltovich nor Hanemaayer were surprised with the decision given they way they've been treated by the justice system, Lockyer added.

"Their lives were completely wrecked by what happened to them, the amount of time they spent in jail," said Lockyer, who is also a founding director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted.

"Rob Baltovich was in for eight years. He went into jail with a recently acquired university degree and has come out unable to secure employment.

"Anthony Hanemaayer is without employment because he can only work seasonally at roofing."

Lockyer has advised them both to pursue a civil lawsuit to try to get financial compensation, and expects them to be successful.

When he initially asked the government to consider compensation in 2008, Lockyer said Baltovich could launch a civil suit against the police for negligence, against the Crown for breach of his Charter rights, and certain individuals in the case. But Lockyer added he didn't want to engage in yet another adversarial court process unless it was "absolutely necessary."

Baltovich was handed a life sentence in 1992 after he was found guilty of killing Bain, who disappeared in 1990, and served eight years before he was given a chance to appeal his case. He was released on bail in 2000. Five years later, Ontario's highest court quashed his conviction, ordering a new trial.

Baltovich was acquitted minutes into that second trial when the Crown said it had no evidence to support a conviction.

Lockyer has alleged the crime was committed by infamous serial rapist and schoolgirl killer Paul Bernardo - a claim Bernardo has denied.

Hanemaayer pleaded guilty part way through his 1989 trial for the assault of a 15-year-old Toronto girl, opting for a sentence of two years less a day instead of the stiffer six- to 10-year term he faced - a fact Bentley said figured into his decision.

The London, Ont., roofer was linked to the crime on the strength of eyewitness testimony by the victim's mother.

Hanemaayer had his record wiped clean in 2008 after the Ontario Court of Appeal heard the Crown believed Bernardo committed the offence - Bernardo had confessed to the crime in a jailhouse interview with police two years earlier.

NDP slams government

NDP critic Peter Kormos said the government's move to deny the men compensation shows a "shameful disregard" for people who were let down by the criminal justice system.

"It's important that they be compensated, and if anything it sends a clear message to the players in the system - police, Crowns and courts - that there will be a price to be paid when the system fails innocent people," said Kormos.

Nearly 20 Canadian men and women have had wrongful convictions acknowledged over the last decade.

Steven Truscott was 14 when he was sentenced to hang when he was convicted of the 1959 murder of schoolmate Lynn Harper. He spent months on death row until his sentence was commuted to life in prison and was paroled in 1969.

The Ontario Court of Appeal declared Truscott a victim of a miscarriage of justice and acquitted him of the crime, but stopped short of declaring him innocent due to a lack of physical evidence.

Truscott received a $6.5-million compensation package from the Province of Ontario - a package Bentley described as an "extremely unusual, once-in-a-lifetime situation."

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No cash for wrongfully convicted men: Ontario | CBC News

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Two men who were wrongfully convicted of crimes and later acquitted were denied compensation Wednesday by the Ontario government despite ordeals their lawyer said "completely wrecked" their lives. Attorney General Chris Bentley said financial compensation only applied to "rare, unusual cases" and wasn't appropriate in the cases of Robert Baltovich and Anthony Hanemaayer.

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Factors that Influenced Hanemaayer's Case:

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Factors that Influenced Hanemaayer's Case:

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Mistaken eyewitness testimony due to the mother only seeing the assailant for a couple of seconds

Flawed forensic/expert testimony since Anthony did not own the get away vehicle

Hanemaayer made a false confession because there was so much false and incriminating evidence on him

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Factors Influencing Wrongful Conviction: 

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Factors Influencing Wrongful Conviction: 

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tunnel vision, where police investigators do not proceed with an open mind

mistaken eyewitness testimony

false confessions

in-custody informers who are not reliable

flawed forensic and expert testimony

public and media pressure to convict

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Pictured to the left is Anthony and Paul, who actually committed the crime. You can tell that they do share some of the same facial features, which explains why the mother mistakingly identified Anthony.

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This is my reflection of the assignment and the case of my wrongfully convicted person.

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The Innocent Case of Anthony Hanemaayer:

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The Innocent Case of Anthony Hanemaayer:

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For those of you who prefer to read, this is an article on Anthony's case.

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Innocence Canada took up Mr. Hanemaayer's case in early 2008, and on June 25, 2008 in the Ontario Court of Appeal, Anthony Hanemaayer, flanked by his lawyers, family and supporters, was acquitted of a crime he never committed.

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This video is a brief summary of the case of Mr. Hanemaayer.