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Wrongfully convicted for Bernardo's crime
-Closely resembles features of Bernardo
- Blue eyes, younger at time of conviction, blonde hair

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Hanemaayer speaks about the struggles he went through being wrongfully convicted. The stigma that follows after being wrongfully convicted
-Trouble finding work after exoneration
-Also talks with other individuals wrongly convicted and their stories

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AIDWYC (The Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted)

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Gives an overview of Hanemaayer's trial. Give insight to how he was convicted, how long his conviction was before being exonerated.

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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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Poem Hanemaayer Wrote
- shows the effects being wrongly convicted played in his life
-Way for Hanemaayer to cope with his anger, frustration, and sadness towards the Criminal Justice System

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Since the victims mother made a false eye witness testimony against Hanemaayer, this video further explains the implications and unreliability eyewitness testimony has
-Gives comparison of taking someones luggage at the airport to wrongful testimonies from witnesses, both are false accusation, however, one is some what hamlets, whereas the other creates grave errors and turmoil in someones life
-Although both may be unintentional, one faces many more consequences

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Why eyewitnesses fail | Thomas Albright | TEDxSanDiego

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Hanemaayer Confesses to a Crime He did not Commit

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Hanemaayer Confesses to a Crime He did not Commit

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Video explains why individuals confess to crimes they did not commit
-Reasoning, Plea deals, interrogations, Impressionability

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Who would confess to a murder they didn’t commit? Maybe you. | Nancy Franklin | TEDxSBU

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Stat on Exonerations from False Eye Witness Testimony

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Stat on Exonerations from False Eye Witness Testimony

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Shows how often false eyewitness testimonies occur in wrongful conviction cases
-Most cases in this program result from one of these 4 falsifications e

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Further explains why Hanemaayer plead guilty and how Lockyer (Hanemaayer's lawyer) states unreliability of eyewitness
-Further speaks on the case if Bernado did not confess, Hanemaaer would have to face this conviction without exoneration for the rest of his life, and even further implicate his life as a registered sex offender

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An Ontario man convicted of assaulting a teenage girl 21 years ago was exonerated Wednesday by the Ontario Court of Appeal after new information revealed imprisoned killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo had confessed to the crime.

Speaking outside the Court of Appeal in Toronto, London resident Anthony Hanemaayer, now 40, said he was relieved and pleased that he had finally been acquitted, after serving jail time.

"Why it took so long, I have no comment, I have no idea," he said.

"I'm very happy that it's over.... It was very stressful. I'm a very soft kind of guy. To have something like that over my head, that people would think of me that way, is mind-blowing."

Three Appeal Court justices formally acquitted Hanemaayer of a 1987 knife assault on a 15-year-old girl in her Toronto bedroom.

"There has been a miscarriage of justice," Justice Marc Rosenberg said as the court reversed Hanemaayer's conviction.

The Crown earlier submitted that it had no case against him in light of the new information.

"The fresh evidence points to only one conclusion - Paul Bernardo committed this attack," Crown counsel Howard Leibovich said in a legal argument filed this week with the court.

"It is clearly in the interests of justice that the fresh evidence be admitted, the appeal allowed and the appellant's conviction[s] set aside."

Plea bargain lands Hanemaayer in jail

At the time of his trial in 1989, Hanemaayer pleaded guilty and was given a jail sentence of two years less a day.

Speaking to CBC News, he said he accepted a plea bargain on the advice of his then lawyer, who warned he could receive a long prison sentence.

After serving his sentence, Hanemaayer said he didn't hear about the case until Toronto police questioned him about it again in 2006.

At that time, he said, police were aware that Bernardo had confessed to the assault on the 15-year-old, but they didn't mention it to him.

The confession was brought to Hanemaayer's attention late last year by the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWC), a legal rights organization.

Appearing Wednesday in the Appeal Court, he formally withdrew his guilty plea from 1989.

Hanemaayer said the Crown's case against him in his 1989 trial was founded on an erroneous eyewitness identification of him by the mother of the victim during a quick encounter early in the morning at the time of the attack.

Unreliability of eyewitness identifications

The AIDWC took up Hanemaayer's case earlier this year upon learning of the Bernardo confession, and complained it should have been reopened immediately after the admission.

Hanemaayer's lawyer, James Lockyer, said he hoped the case would alert officials again to the unreliability of eyewitness identifications, and the dangers of building prosecutions on them.

Lockyer also called for a new investigation into crimes that might have been committed by Bernardo during the 1980s and early '90s, to search for more wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice.

"What a piece of luck that Bernardo should decide - for God knows what reason - that he would finally confess," Lockyer said. "Our [legal] system should not have to depend on someone like him to come forward and confess the way he did."

Bernardo is serving a life sentence in Kingston, Ont., for the first-degree murders of Ontario schoolgirls Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French.

Later at a news conference, Hanemaayer's lawyer said he would be seeking compensation but gave no specific details of what that request would entail.

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Court clears Ontario man after Bernardo confession | CBC News

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An Ontario man convicted of assaulting a teenage girl 21 years ago was exonerated Wednesday by the province's highest court after killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo confessed to the crime.

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Mother and daughter that wrongfully convicted Hanemaayer
-shows their feelings to false testimony of an innocent man
-Years after assault took place, daughter still dealing with trama everyday
-Sheds light on how slow recovery can be for victims depending on the individual
- For years believing it is someone, then finding out you were wrong brings up many emotions once again

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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.