Russell Williams

Case details

Russell Williams (born March 7, 1963) was convicted murderer and rapist and a former Colonel in the Canadian Forces.

Background

Williams was born in Bromsgrove, England, to Cedric David Williams and Christine Nonie Williams (née Chivers). His family immigrated to Canada and moved to Chalk River, Ontario. His father was hired as a metallurgist at Chalk River Laboratories, Canada’s premier nuclear research laboratory.

After relocating to Chalk River, the Williams family met another family, the Sovkas, and they became good friends. The families spent a lot of time together. Williams’s parents divorced when he was six years old, and Nonie Williams married Jerry Sovka soon after. During this time Williams took on the name Sovka from his stepfather Dr. Jerry Sovka and moved again to Scarborough, Ontario.

While in the Scarborough Bluffs area, Williams began high school at Toronto’s Birchmount Collegiate and finished at Upper Canada College. He delivered The Globe and Mail newspaper and learned piano.

By 1979 the family had moved to South Korea, where Sovka was overseeing another reactor project. Williams completed his final two years of high school as a boarding student at Toronto’s Upper Canada College while his parents were in South Korea. In his final year in 1982, he was elected as one of two prefects for his boarding house and reported to his house steward, Andrew Saxton, now the Conservative Member of Parliament for North Vancouver.

On June 1, 1991 he married Mary Elizabeth Harriman, who is an associate director of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Williams was described as a keen photographer, fisherman and runner, and he and his wife Mary Elizabeth were also avid golfers. The couple moved to Orleans, a suburb of Ottawa in July 2006.

Williams had been posted to the Directorate of Air Requirements at NDHQ by then. He served at the Airlift Capability Projects Strategic (CC177 Globemaster III) and Tactical (CC130J Hercules J), and Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue.

Williams’s wife started the process of filing for divorce together with a request to have any of her financial and medical information sealed by the court in December 2010.

Military service

Williams was regarded as a model military man over the course of his 23-year career. He enrolled in the Canadian Forces in 1987 after graduating from the University of Toronto with an economics and political science degree. He received his flying wings in 1990 and was posted to 3 Canadian Forces Flying Training School, based at CFB Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, where he served for two years as an instructor.

He was promoted to captain on January 1, 1991, and was posted to 434 Combat Support Squadron at CFB Shearwater, N.S. in 1992, where he flew the CC-144 Challenger in the electronic warfare and coastal patrol role.

In 1994 he was posted to the 412 Transport Squadron in Ottawa, where he transported VIPs including high-ranking government officials and foreign dignitaries, also on Challengers.

He was promoted to major in November 1999 and posted to Director General Military Careers in Ottawa, where he served as the multi-engine pilot career manager. He obtained a Master of Defence Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada in 2004 with a 55-page thesis that supported pre-emptive war in Iraq. In June 2004 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and on July 19, 2004 he was appointed commanding officer of 437 Transport Squadron at CFB Trenton, Ont., a post he held for two years.

From December 2005 to May 2006, Williams also served as the commanding officer of Camp Mirage, a secretive logistics facility believed to be located at Al Minhad Air Base in Dubai, United Arab Emirates that provides support to Canadian Forces operations in Afghanistan.

He was posted to the Directorate of Air Requirements on July 21, 2006 where he served as project director for the Airlift Capability Projects Strategic (C-17 Globemaster III) and Tactical (CC-130J Super Hercules), and Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue (CC-127J Spartan), working under Lieutenant General Angus Watt at this posting.

In January 2009 he was posted to the Canadian Forces Language School in Gatineau, Quebec, for a six-month period of French language training, during which he was promoted to colonel by recommendation of now retired Lieutenant-General Angus Watt.

On July 15, 2009, Williams was sworn in as the Wing Commander at Canadian Forces Base Trenton by the outgoing Wing Commander Brigadier General Mike Hood. Canadian Forces Base Trenton is Canada’s busiest air base and locus of support for overseas military operations. Located in Trenton, Ontario, the base also functions as the point of arrival for the bodies of all Canadian Forces personnel killed in Afghanistan and the starting point for funeral processions along the “Highway of Heroes” whence their bodies are brought to Toronto for autopsy.

Williams had flown Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, the Governor General of Canada, the Prime Minister of Canada, and many other dignitaries across Canada and overseas in Canadian Forces VIP aircraft. He had commanded Canadian Forces Base Trenton from July 2009 until his arrest in February 2010.

Other details

Williams had attempted to kill himself by wedging a stuffed cardboard toilet paper roll down his throat, and he was placed on suicide watch in April 2010.

The offence

Williams was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of forcible confinement, and two counts of breaking and entering and sexual assault. Another 82 charges relating to breaking and entry were subsequently added.

Williams was also charged in the death of Corporal Marie-France Comeau, a 37-year-old military flight attendant based at CFB Trenton, who had been found dead inside her home in late November 2009.

In connection with two separate home invasions near Tweed, Ontario in September 2009, Williams was charged with breaking and entering, forcible confinement, and the sexual assault of two other women. The women had been bound in their homes and the attacker had taken photos of them.

Jessica Lloyd, 27, had vanished on January 28, 2010. Investigators identified distinctive tire tracks left in snow near her home. Williams led investigators to the woman’s body in a secluded area on Cary Road, about 13 minutes away from where he lived.

During the trial and sentencing proceedings, details emerged of other sexual assaults he committed, including that of a new mother who was wakened with a blow to the head while she and her baby were asleep in her house. The proceedings also described pedophiliac tendencies, stealing underwear of girls as young as nine years old, and 82 fetish-related home invasions and attempted break-ins between September 2007 and November 2009.

Williams progressed from break-ins to sexual assaults with no penetration to rape and murder. He kept detailed track of police reports of the crimes he was committing, logged his crimes, kept photos and videos and left notes and messages for his victims.

A break-in into the bedroom of a 12-year-old included a message in her computer saying: "Merci" ("Thank you" in French). Crown Attorney Robert Morrison presented numerous pictures of Williams dressed in the underwear and bras he had stolen, frequently masturbating while lying on the beds of his victims.

On New Year’s Day 2008 Williams broke into a home in the Ottawa neighbourhood where he lived and sprayed semen on a 15-year-old girl’s dresser. He then took a picture of himself with the girl’s make-up brush touching his penis. Morrison added: “There is nothing to suggest that make-up brush was stolen.”

During court proceedings, Crown attorneys revealed that Williams logged his crimes, kept track of police reports of his crimes and left notes and messages for his victims. Crown attorney Robert Morrison also described an escalation pattern from fetish break-ins to sex assault with no penetration to rape and murder from September 2007 to January 2010.

The court also heard that Williams admitted offences that included break-ins near his Tweed cottage and a home invasion in which he broke in while a victim and her newborn baby slept, beat her, bound and blindfolded her with pillow cases and fondled her while taking pictures of her naked.

A warning was given at the outset of the facts: “I caution the court and the public that these facts will be extremely disturbing.” Crown attorney Burgess added: “We recognize that representation of the evidence will further cause them emotional pain.”

Investigation

Investigators identified distinctive tire tracks left in snow near Jessica Lloyd’s home.

One week after her disappearance, the Ontario Provincial Police conducted an extensive canvassing of all motorists using the highway near her home from 7 pm on February 4, 2010, to 6 am on the following day, looking for the unusual tire treads. Williams was driving his Pathfinder that day rather than the BMW he usually drove, and an officer noticed the resemblance of his tire treads. These were subsequently matched to the treads near Lloyd’s home.

A week after Williams’s arrest, investigators reported that they matched a print from one of the homicide scenes to his boot. Investigators also reported hidden keepsakes and other evidence found in his home. The investigation included probes into 48 cases of theft of women's underwear dating back to 2006. Police discovered stolen lingerie that was neatly stored, catalogued, and concealed in searches of his Ottawa home.

In April 2010, Williams was placed on suicide watch after he tried to kill himself.

Arrest and interrogation

On February 7, 2010, the CFB Trenton base commander was at his newly built home in Ottawa, where his wife lived full-time and he lived part-time. He was called by the OPP in Ottawa and asked to come in for questioning.

During a 10-hour interview he confessed to the numerous crimes of which he was later convicted.

On February 7, 2010, Williams was interrogated at Ottawa Police Service headquarters by Detective Sergeant Jim Smyth of the Ontario Provincial Police’s Behavioural Sciences Unit. The interview started at 3 p.m. and by 7:45 p.m. he was describing his crimes. The interrogation lasted approximately ten hours.

A video of the interrogation was made available to the public and was posted online by several newspapers and on YouTube.

Excerpts of the confession were shown in court at Williams’s sentencing hearing on October 20, 2010.

In the confession, Williams gave details of his crimes including sexual assaults in Tweed and 82 break-ins and thefts. Some were said to have occurred in Ottawa homes within walking distance of his Orleans, Ontario home where he lived with his wife. Other break-ins and thefts were said to have occurred in Belleville and in Tweed, where the couple had had a cottage since 2004.

Williams told Detective Sergeant Jim Smyth where police could find evidence including hidden keepsakes inside the Ottawa home. He told them where they could find the thousands of images he took of Lloyd and Comeau and the two women he sexually assaulted, and he identified on a map where he dumped Lloyd’s body.

He was arraigned and remanded into custody on Monday, February 8, 2010.

Court proceedings

Williams appeared before the Ontario Court of Justice in Belleville, Ontario via video link from the Quinte Detention Centre on July 22, 2010, where his next court appearance was set for August 26.

Via video link again, Williams waived his right to a preliminary inquiry and had his next appearance scheduled at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for October 7, 2010.

Williams’s lawyer stated that his client would plead guilty to all 82 Criminal Code charges filed against him.

On October 18, 2010, Williams pleaded guilty to all charges.

Charges read in court took 36 minutes to be read out to a silent courtroom. To the first count of murdering Marie-France Comeau, Williams pleaded “Guilty, your honour.” To the second count of killing Jessica Elizabeth Lloyd, his guilty plea was barely audible.

At sentencing, Williams told Justice Robert F. Scott: “Your Honour, I stand before you indescribably ashamed. I know the crimes I have committed have traumatized many people. The family and friends of Marie-France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd in particular have suffered and continue to suffer profound, desperate pain and sorrow as a result of what I’ve done. My assaults of Ms. [name redacted because of publication ban] and Ms. Massicotte have caused them to suffer terribly as well. Numerous victims of the break and enters I have committed have been very seriously distressed as a result of my having so invaded their most intimate privacy. My family, your honour, has been irreparably damaged. The understandable hatred that was expressed yesterday and that has been palpable throughout the week has me recognize that most will find it impossible to accept, but the fact is, I deeply regret what I have done and the harm I know I have caused to many. I committed despicable crimes, your Honour, and in the process betrayed my family, my friends and colleagues and the Canadian Force. ”

Sentencing

Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert F. Scott sentenced Williams on October 22, 2010, to two concurrent terms of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

On October 21, 2010, Williams was sentenced to two life sentences for first-degree murder, two 10-year sentences for other sexual assaults, two 10-year sentences for forcible confinement and 82 one-year sentences for burglary; all the sentences would be served concurrently at Kingston Penitentiary.

The life sentences meant Williams would serve a minimum of 25 years before parole eligibility. Because he had been convicted of multiple murders, he was not eligible for early parole under the so-called "faint hope clause" of the Canadian Criminal Code.

Just before sentencing, Williams told Justice Robert F. Scott he was "indescribably ashamed" of the crimes he had committed and especially apologized to the families of the two murdered women. He blew his nose before standing in the courtroom to address Scott. He said: “The family and friends of Marie-France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd in particular have suffered and continue to suffer profound, desperate pain and sorrow as a result of what I’ve done.” He said he understood "the hatred expressed yesterday and that has been palpable throughout the week." He also said: "I deeply regret the harm I know I've caused." He said: "I committed despicable crimes, your honour, and in the process betrayed my family, my friends and colleagues and the Canadian Forces."

Justice Scott said nothing surprised him anymore and that he believed Williams’s apology was sincere. Scott said: “Fortunately for all, the nature of these crimes are very rare in our society. The depths of depravity demonstrated by Russell Williams have no equal,”

The sentencing included prohibitions and registrations:

• Williams was prohibited for life from possessing weapons.
• Williams was registered for life as a sex offender.
• Williams was to submit DNA samples to the police data bank.
• Williams was to pay a $100 victim surcharge for each charge, for a total of $8,800.

Crown lawyer Lee Burgess said he would not seek to have Williams declared a dangerous offender because it would have just prolonged the hearing. Burgess called it "superfluous" because he believed the facts outlined during the week would prevent a parole board from ever allowing Williams out on parole.

Burgess asked that some items used in evidence be destroyed including Williams’s digital cameras, the ropes and the stolen lingerie, as well as the Nissan Pathfinder he used to abduct Lloyd and dump her body. Justice Scott granted the request.

Defence lawyer Michael Edelson said he had no issue with what the Crown proposed and stated: “There is nothing that can be said to change the legal outcome and consequences here today," and: “It is not the role of the defence to specifically address the victim impact resulting from the crimes. But we wish to acknowledge their suffering and we take no issue with what Crown counsel [is] proposing.”

Edelson pointed out mitigating factors that Scott should consider, stating that a lengthy and costly trial was avoided by Williams confessing to the crimes and pleading guilty. Edelson stated: “It is important to note that only 17 of 48 homeowners had reported homes were broken into. Until he confessed, they were unable to identify a suspect,” and: “It is important to note that only 17 of 48 homeowners had reported homes were broken into. Until he confessed, they were unable to identify a suspect,”.

Edelson also stated: “It is important to note that only 17 of 48 homeowners had reported homes were broken into.

Outside court Andy Lloyd, Jessica Lloyd’s brother, said: "As long as he dies in jail, I'm happy." He thanked everyone who worked on the case and said: "It's over with, it's done with," and: "This is the best thing that's happened to our family since this stuff has happened…. We just want to be normal again."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper commented on the case, saying: “Our thoughts, our prayers, our hearts obviously go out to the victims and to their families,” and: “Also, our thoughts go out to all the members of the Canadian Forces who knew the commander, and who have been very badly wounded and betrayed by all of this.” Harper reiterated that the military intended to take the necessary actions to ensure that all sanctions that were possible were applied.

Williams was sentenced to serve his sentence at the Kingston Penitentiary, and the prison had a maximum-security area called G Block where dangerous offenders spend the rest of their days in small isolation rooms, some for 23 hours a day.

Outcome

Williams pleaded guilty to all charges.

Aftermath

On October 22, 2010, Williams was stripped of his commission, ranks, and awards by the Governor General of Canada on the recommendation of the Chief of the Defence Staff. His severance pay was terminated and the salary he received following his arrest was seized, although he remained entitled to a pension.

Subsequent to his conviction, his uniform was burned, his medals were destroyed and his vehicle crushed and scrapped. A request to destroy evidence used in court was granted, including Williams’s digital cameras, the ropes and the stolen lingerie, and the Nissan Pathfinder used to abduct Lloyd and dump her body.

The thousands of photos and videotapes Williams took documenting his crimes were to be kept for possible review by a future parole board, Burgess said.

Hours after the announcement of Williams’s arrest, police services across the country reopened unsolved homicide cases involving young women in areas where Williams had previously been stationed. Police began looking at other unsolved cases based on a full statement that Williams gave to police. A week after the arrest, investigators reported matching a print from one of the homicide scenes to his boot.