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Oct. 3, 1984: 9-year-old Christine Jessop disappears.

Dec. 31, 1984: Her battered body is found 50 kilometres from her Queensville, Ont., home.

April 22, 1985: Guy Paul Morin is charged with first-degree murder.

Feb. 7, 1986: Mr. Morin is acquitted.

June 5, 1987: Ontario Court of Appeal orders new trial.

Nov. 17, 1988: Supreme Court of Canada agrees with Ontario Appeal Court.

July 30, 1992: Mr. Morin is convicted of first-degree murder.

Jan. 23, 1995: Mr. Morin is acquitted by Ontario Court of Appeal.

Sept. 3, 1996: Public inquiry into wrongful conviction begins.

Jan. 24, 1997: Ontario government awards Mr. Morin and his parents $1.25 million in compensation.

Feb. 10, 1998: Final summations conclude in inquiry.

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The Wrongfully Convicted – Canadian Justice

1.Who are you completing your case study on?

I am completing this case study of Guy Paul Morin by myself, for The Wrongfully Convicted – Canadian Justice GNED 1307 online course. Guy Paul Morin a guy that most in the community found to be an ‘odd’ figure was eventually arrested for the rape and murder of Christine Jessop. The crime was unthinkable, and the person that was the focus of police attention from the time of the abduction would eventually be deemed a monster of epic proportions.

2.Briefly summarize and explain the situation of your selected wrongly convicted person.

Christine Jessop left school at 3:40 pm and got off her school bus 5 minutes later. Christine was seen at Queensville General Store buying gum just before 4 pm and again was seen waiting at the corner nearby for her friend Chipman by a passerby at 4:00 pm. Her friend went to the playground looking for Christine just after 4 pm and she never showed up. Christine Jessop would never be seen again, until 89 days later when her body was found on new years eve beaten, and mutilated. Fast forward almost eight years later before they finally charged the man accused of rape, mutilation of Christine Jessop body, and killing her Guy Paul Morin. On Oct 03, 1984 the family of Christine Jessop arrived at their Queensville home at 4:10 pm at which time they noticed Christine had already gone. Guy Paul Morin had clocked off work at 3:32 pm and the earliest he could have arrived home was 4:15 pm. Christine’s family arrived home at 4:10 pm and she was not there, and Guy arrives home at the earliest 4:15 pm, then he couldn’t have taken her. Detectives Fitzpatrick and Sheppard went back to visit the Jessop’s and the Jessop’s re-calculated the time that they got home to 4:30 pm to 4:40 pm. At band practice, a female undercover officer posing as a student hairdresser snipped off a sample of Guy’s hair and sent it to the lab for testing. In Toronto at the center for forensic sciences under a microscope, the hair sample looked similar to a sample found tangled in Christine Jessop’s necklace she had been wearing. The Durham regional police convinced they have found their killer, Guy Paul Morin is accused, arrested, and charged five days later for the murder of Christine Jessop. Guy was brought to 18 division in Whitby Ontario for interrogation/processing. In the interrogation room, the officers placed a large poster of a fingerprint and told Guy that it was his and that it came from Christine Jessop’s clothing which was a lie it actually came from of his clarinet (scare tactic).

ALTERNATE THEORY: Defence Counsel (Clayton Ruby) Suggested that…

•    If the jury could concede that Guy killed Christine, then they should find him not guilty

•    Clayton Ruby's - Reason by insanity plea

•    Guy is schizophrenic and could have killed Christine when he was in a hallucinatory state, in a deluded belief that he was giving her life! (absolutely ridiculous that he would say this…)

Guy Paul Morin was Exonerated in 1995, cleared by DNA Evidence (what does it mean to be exonerated)

Exoneration: The Royal Prerogative (Application)

•    Means of exoneration

-          1 year to launch a new trial

-          If a miscarriage of justice, the matter can be referred to the Court of Appeals

-          This can give the Crown 1 year to launch a new trial

-          Options to…

o   Re-prosecute

o   Leave conviction intact

o    Launch new trial

o    Withdraw the charge

o   Stay proceedings

3.Using Chapter 4 of your textbook (page 98), identify and explain how the factor(s) contributed to the wrongful conviction in your case.

The facts surrounding the case was clear but due to the insurmountable amount of pressure from the community, the family, and political pressures police had to resolve this case as expeditiously as humanly possible. Guy Paul Morin explained to police that…

•    He could not have committed the crime, because there would not be enough time to;

o    Drive home

o    Abduct Christine

o    Drive her to the body site

o    Sexually assault her

o    Stab her to death

o    And get home at 5:30 pm in time for dinner

o    …The crown didn't buy it!

Despite the safeguards, there’s still an increasing number of wrongfully convicted cases. The judicial system is not infallible, there is still a need for better oversite to stem the belief that the wrongful conviction rate is systemic based on the inappropriate actions of numerous people in the criminal justice system.

Main Factors Involved are as follows;

POLICE MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE

•    Retention of evidence – The release of pertinent evidence that could have changed the direction of the investigation

•    Missing evidence – Poor management of the evidence at the crime scene can contaminant it.

•    Inadequate evidence – Under develop material evidence, or not doing follow-ups

•    Misleading evidence – Can be intentional, all leads should be fully investigated

•    The dangers of "demeanor evidence"

•    Tunnel vision – This can destroy a case because the focus is on that one person and none other

•    The need to be skeptical of "experts" – Not all experts are accredited in the fields that they are testifying in

•    The dangers of jailhouse snitches – Not trustworthy, they will tell you whatever you want to hear

4.Was the wrongly convicted person awarded compensation for their situation?  If so, how much?

Guy Paul Morin was awarded 1.2 million dollars by retired Justice Fred Kaufman, who preceded over the Commission (an Independent Ontario government investigation) on Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin.

5.In your opinion, should a wrongly convicted person be awarded compensation and comment on what you would determine is a satisfactory award (if any).

Yes, if they are proven not guilty by DNA analysis or by someone else being charged for the crime inclusively. I believe Guy Paul Morin did not get the amount that he deserved, but it’s is nice to know that they awarded him something rather than nothing.

CCRC (Criminal Cases Review Commission)

•    Wrongful convictions in some provinces will not get compensation unless innocence is proven by DNA or the prosecution of someone else for the crime

6.What did you learn about the topic that surprised you?

I learned that in everything that we do as a society, community, family, and country we need checks and balances, independent oversite, continually revised procedures in place, safeguards, and accountability/integrity on every level of government, policing, and basically anywhere oversite is warranted.

7.What are you most likely to remember from this research?

The research makes me reflect on my court visits and how easy it is to look at someone and just write them off as being guilty. I think we all have this flaw in us (mob mentality) if he/she looks guilty then they are guilty. We must always take a stance of caution and think impartially less we fall into the same trap. This experience just completes the whole court experience, thank you.

Some leftover Tidbits / Food for thought:

Laws Changed: Kaufman Investigation & Recommendations

•    1300-page final report

•    119 recommendations

•    False theory

•    Inadequate disclosure by Crown

SUPREME COURT OF CANADA: 1988 JUDGEMENT

•    Retrial was commencing

•    10 months by legal motions

•    New evidence

o    Christine's brother claims he and two friends induced Christine to have sex with them on several occasions

•    Ken Jessop - could have been the primary suspect, but police were had tunnel vision focus on Paul Morin

•    Boston lab using advanced technology got a DNA sample and ruled out Paul as the suspect

•    Prosecutors joined the defense and apologized to Paul for his ordeal and asked for a verdict of not guilty

Aftermath: Christine Jessop Investigation

•    Ken Jessop - a DJ in Niagara Falls

•    Paul Morin - buys farm north of Toronto

•    Married one of his supporters

•    No public appearances

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Christine Jessop's family still hoping for justice, 30 years later

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Christine Jessop's family waits for justice

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Christine Jessop was abducted on Oct. 3, 1984. Her body was found three months later. Three decades after she first went missing, the case has never been solved.

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Christine Jessop 9 years old went missing in Queensville 50 km from Toronto Oct 03, 1984, by night fall volunteers, police and firefighters formed search parties lookin for Christine Jessop.

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Guy Paul Morin from Kingston Penitentiary

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Guy Paul Morin from Kingston Penitentiary

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On October 3rd 1984, nine-year old Christine Jessop vanished from the community of Queensville Ontario. Months later her beaten and raped body was found in a field. Durham Regional Police focused its attention on Guy Paul Morin, a guy they figured to be 'odd' and eventually arrested for murder. The ensuing trials drew national attention. In 1992, the fifth estate investigated the case and had the first ever television interview with Morin from Kingston Penitentiary

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Guy Paul Morin : Odd Man Out (1992) - the fifth estate

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Guy Paul Morin charged with the abduction, rape, and murder of Christine Jessop.

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Canadian Justice

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Wrongfully Convicted:
GUY PAUL MORIN: CASE FILE

2nd wrongful conviction of it's kind in Canada

24 year old - Guy Paul Morin

Factory worker

Both families were new to the area, and both families lived next door to each other.

Christine Jessop abducted October 3rd 1984

Christine Jessop missing and by night fall search parties are looking. But not Guy he didn't search for her...

Christine Jessop was found on farm decomposed

Semen stains were found on the body

Police forces where competing against  each other and allow investigation to go askew.

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David Milgaard joins the ranks of the wrongfully convicted

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David Milgaard, Donald Marshall, Guy Paul Morin and Rubin "Hurricane" Carter talk about the challenges of life after a wrongful conviction.

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Retention of evidence

Missing evidence

Inadequate evidence

Misleading evidence

The dangers of "demeanor evidence"

Tunnel vision

The need to be skeptical of "experts"

The dangers of jailhouse snitches

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Three decades later, Janet Jessop has vivid memories of the day her nine-year-old daughter Christine vanished.

"I will never forget that frantic feeling," she told CBC News in an interview.

Friday will mark 30 years since Christine Jessop was abducted after arriving home alone from school in Queensville, Ont., north of Toronto.

Her body was found on Dec. 31, 1984, in a wooded area in Sunderland, Ont., 56 kilometres from her home. She had been raped and stabbed to death.

"I've been thinking about it. Thirty years is a long time. No doubt about that," Janet Jessop said, when reflecting about her only daughter.

"And I think of who did it. I think of her. What she looked like. What we'd be doing.

"It never goes away and the anniversaries seem to get, I'll say a little bit easier, as time goes on - and yet 30 years. That hits. That hits hard, that you haven't received any answers."

The following year, the Jessops' next-door neighbour, Guy Paul Morin, was charged in Christine's death. He was acquitted in an initial trial and then wrongfully convicted in a second trial. Advancements in DNA testing eventually cleared him.

An inquiry was held into Morin's wrongful conviction and the original investigation.

The Toronto police took over the case after that inquiry and formed a task force. A complete re-investigation did not lead to an arrest, but the Toronto force has retained the case since then.

Borg said physical details, such as a suspect's hair colour, eye colour and ethnicity, can help police focus an investigation.

Janet Jessop is now 72 and lives by herself in a retirement community in Niagara Falls, Ont.

She is far from all the constant reminders of the case and doesn't advertise her tragic past. But she still misses her "always happy, smiling" little girl.

"She would be 39 now. She was nine when she was murdered. That's a lot of time that we could've spent together and enjoyed each other. So, yes. It's an important year. A very important year."

Christine's big brother Ken Jessop also lives far away from the memories in Crystal Beach, Ont., with his wife, Tracey.

He, too, needs answers and tries to find them through a Facebook page he set up called Justice for Christine.

"I think we're down to the science, finding our answers now," he said.

Christine Jessop is buried in the Queensville cemetery where she used to play behind her home. This milestone anniversary is particularly important to her mother, who fears it might be the last chance for publicity.

Janet Jessop doesn't care if the killer is alive or dead.

She just wants to know who it is.

"It would mean really an end. A complete and total end. We have Christine back, that's fine, but it's still unfinished," she said.

And while new science is promising, cold case investigators need tips to narrow the field of suspects.

So once again, Christine's family is appealing for help.

"I think it's important to keep her memory alive," said Ken Jessop. "As alive as it is for my mother and I... because you never know."

Anyone with information on the abduction and killing of Christine Jessop is urged to call the homicide squad at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers.

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Cold case: Christine Jessop's abduction and death still unsolved 30 years later | CBC News

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Three decades later, Janet Jessop has vivid memories of the day her nine-year-old daughter Christine vanished. "I will never forget that frantic feeling," she told CBC News in an interview. Friday will mark 30 years since Christine Jessop was abducted after arriving home alone from school in Queensville, Ont., north of Toronto.

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The Innocence Project

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Morin spent 18 months in prison -- and 10 years under the cloud of a murder prosecution -- before he was exonerated.

Christine Jessop Murder

Guy Paul Morin, a 24-year-old furniture factory worker, lived next door to Christine Jessop, a nine-year-old girl who vanished after school on 3 October 1984. The Morin and Jessop families were both relative newcomers to the rural hamlet of Queensville, Ontario, about 50 km north of Toronto. The child's disappearance resulted in panic. By nightfall, hundreds of York Regional Police, firefighters and community volunteers were searching for her.

Christine Jessop's remains were finally found on 31 December 1984. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. A farmer located her tattered clothes and decomposing corpse in his field near Sunderland, Ontario, about 55 km east of Queensville. Due to the distant location of the site of the body, the investigation was transferred from the York police to the Durham Regional Police.

Police Incompetence

Jealousies and poor communication between the two police forces became an unfortunate feature of the case. This led to the suppression or improper transmission of important information. In addition, each of the forces possessed modest experience, with the added internal and external pressure of a homicide case.

Semen stains had been found on Jessop's underwear. However, DNA technology at the time was not advanced enough to render conclusive results from the badly deteriorated samples. Thus, two early attempts to obtain DNA readings failed.

Months of investigation turned up little useful evidence. At the same time, police investigators failed to keep an emotional distance from the Jessop family. They held free-ranging discussions with Christine's parents about suspects and other aspects of the case. They were apparently unaware that these exchanges could contaminate and ultimately jeopardize the integrity of their recollections and later testimony.

In a notable instance that only came to light many years later, the lead investigators persuaded Christine's mother and brother to reconsider the time they had arrived home on the day of Christine's disappearance. Previously, they had pinpointed it as 4:10 p.m. Once the Jessops expanded their estimate to 4:35 p.m., it dramatically changed the window of opportunity Morin would have had in which to arrive home from work and abduct the child.

Perceptions of Morin

Perceptions by police and community members also played a significant role in causing the investigation to go askew. Perceived as black sheep within the Queensville community, the Morin family was reclusive, combative and given to surrounding its partially renovated home with junk and work materials.

In addition, Morin drew suspicion to himself by not joining in the search for the Jessop girl, or attending her funeral in early January 1985. During a routine interview with Durham detectives Bernie Fitzpatrick and John Shepherd, Morin also made oblique references to little girls growing up to be "corrupt." He also indicated - at least, in the view of the investigators - that he had inside knowledge of the location of the body.

Morin, an independent soul who loved beekeeping and playing the clarinet, was arrested on 22 April 1985 as he drove to a community band practice. He was denied bail and spent ten months in Whitby Jail awaiting trial on a charge of first-degree murder.

Morin's Trial

Opportunity was a key factor in the case. Morin claimed he could not have had enough time to drive home from work, abduct Christine, drive her to the body site, sexually assault and stab her to death, and still be home for dinner by approximately 5:30 p.m. However, the Crown, with the use of the Jessop family's reconfigured time schedule, contended that his window of opportunity was sufficient.

At Morin's first trial in January 1986, prosecutors John Scott and Susan Maclean portrayed him as a misfit who had become sexually obsessed with his next-door neighbor. The evidence against him included a hair found on Christine's body which allegedly matched Morin's, as well as microscopic clothing fibres found in Morin's car that were used to link him with Christine.

In addition, the Crown put forward two jailhouse informants who claimed to have heard Morin blurt out an anguished midnight confession. They also presented testimony from an undercover police officer who spent four days in Morin's jail cell trying to induce him to confess.

Defence counsel Clayton Ruby attacked the credibility of the jailhouse snitches; he revealed that the Crown had offered the informants leniency in their cases, in return for their testimony. Ruby also made much of a series of investigative shortcomings; these included the improper collection and retention of physical evidence from the body site, as well as police notes that were missing, inadequate or misleading.

Acquittal

In an unexpected development late in the trial, Ruby put forward an alternate theory. He said that if the jury were to conclude that Morin had killed Christine Jessop, then they ought to find him not guilty by reason of insanity. Two psychiatrists then testified that Morin was moderately schizophrenic and could have potentially stabbed Christine to death during a hallucinatory episode in the deluded belief that he was giving her life.

After deliberating for less than a day, the jury found Morin not guilty on 7 February 1986. The verdict was loudly denounced by the Jessop family, police and the news media. A collective belief had evidently developed that, based on the psychiatric evidence alone, Morin was the killer.

Appeal

The Crown successfully appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court of Canada. On 5 June 1987, the Court reversed Morin's acquittal based largely on the trial judge having confused the jury with his legal instructions. It ordered a retrial. Morin's appeal of the decision was dismissed by the Supreme Court on 17 November 1988.

Second Trial and Conviction

The retrial began on 28 May 1990. It was preceded by 10 months of legal motions and applications by Morin's new defence team, led by lawyer Jack Pinkofsky. He fought for disclosure of a vast number of police reports that had not been given to Ruby prior to the first trial. Some of the reports ultimately raised serious questions about the integrity of physical exhibits used at the initial trial. Others pointed to viable alternative suspects who police had not investigated fully. Still more revealed that Christine's brother, Kenneth, had informed police at one point that when Christine was seven years old, he and two of his friends had induced her into having sex with them on several occasions.

Pinkofsky used these revelations at the retrial to allege that police had built a fabricated case around a man whose only "crime" was being eccentric. He suggested that other more viable suspects had remained at large - including Ken Jessop - as the police single-mindedly went after Morin. After hearing nine months of evidence, the jury shocked most observers by convicting Morin of first-degree murder on 30 July 1992.

DNA Proves Innocence

Within weeks of the conviction, the news media, a book and a CBC Fifth Estate investigation raised grave doubts about the fairness of the proceedings against Morin. In a highly unusual move, he was released from Kingston Penitentiary on bail on 9 February 1993, pending his appeal.

Virtually on the eve of Morin's appeal, a third and final attempt was made to obtain DNA results capable of verifying whether Morin was the killer. This time, using advanced technology, scientists at a Boston lab were able to obtain a DNA reading. It was inconsistent with Morin's DNA, effectively ruling him out as a viable suspect.

On 23 January 1995, a Crown prosecutor apologized to Morin for his ordeal and joined the defence in asking the court to overturn his conviction and substitute a verdict of not guilty.

Inquiry and Compensation

Simultaneously, the Ontario government struck a public inquiry to delve into the miscarriage of justice and recommend systemic changes. It appointed a retired Quebec Court of Appeal judge, Fred Kaufman, to preside over the inquiry; it was known as the Commission on Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin.

Another retired Quebec judge, Alan Gold, was hired by the Ontario government to negotiate compensation for the Morin family. He ultimately recommended that the family be paid $1.25 million. The province agreed.

Morin attended every day of the 10-month inquiry into his wrongful conviction before intentionally slipping out of the media limelight. Discussing his motivation to be present, Morin told reporters: "No one will ever look at me again and say: 'He might have done it.' I had the dagger hanging over my head, all right. But this is like a motion picture ending."

In a 1,300-page final report, Kaufman concluded that the Morin investigation and prosecution had featured, "tunnel vision of the most staggering proportions." In his 119 recommendations, Kaufman pointed to a host of problems involving inadequate disclosure of evidence by the Crown; scientific error; and a false theory that led officials to build a case around their main suspect.

Kaufman called for the creation of rigorous measures to maintain the objectivity of scientific testing, and for the inherent frailties of scientific evidence to be clearly outlined to jurors. He said that jailhouse informants should be used in the rarest of circumstances, given their unreliability as witnesses. He also said that police should develop strict protocols for collecting, retaining and disclosing physical evidence.

Aftermath

With the case unsolved, Metro Toronto Police took over the Jessop murder investigation. In 1998, after 300 potential suspects had been probed and eliminated primarily due to alibi or DNA, they gave up and closed their re-investigation.

The Jessop family came apart soon after Morin's conviction. Bob and Janet Jessop split up and sold their home in Queensville. Ken Jessop moved to the Niagara Falls area and worked primarily as a disc jockey. He created a website, Justice for Christine Jessop.

Morin used his compensation payment to purchase a tract of land with a farmhouse north of Toronto. Shortly after his exoneration, he married a member of a support team that had advocated for his innocence. The couple have two sons. Morin gained certification as a piano tuner, opened a small business named Paul's Handiworks and later obtained full-time employment at Toronto's Pearson Airport as a maintenance worker.

Over the years, Morin avoided speaking to the media or making public appearances. "I don't have any bitterness about the past," he said in one of his last interviews. "It's true that I've have had my little spurts of anger, but I knew my day of exoneration would come."

Killer Identified

On 15 October 2020, Toronto police announced that they had identified Calvin Hoover, a friend of the Jessop family who was 28 at the time of Christine's murder, as the man responsible for her murder. Using genetic genealogy tracing, an advanced form of DNA testing, police linked a semen sample from Jessop's remains to Hoover, who died by suicide in 2015. Hoover was never a suspect in Jessop's murder but had been considered a person of interest. In announcing the DNA findings, Toronto Interim Police Chief James Ramer told media that, "if he were alive today the Toronto Police Service would arrest Calvin Hoover for the murder of Christine Jessop."

In a statement released by his lawyer, Morin said, "I am grateful that the Toronto Police stayed on the case and have now finally solved it. When DNA exonerated me in January, 1995, I was sure that one day DNA would reveal the real killer and now it has." He also said, "I am relieved for Christine's mother, Janet, and her family, and hope this will give them some peace of mind."

See also Morin Inquiry Report; Morin Inquiry Revelations; Wrongful Convictions.

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The Guy Paul Morin case was the second major wrongful conviction case to occur in the modern era of the Canadian criminal justice system. The case was rid...