ANY QUESTIONS?
http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=next_topic&f=14&t=001806&go=older
"Reena Virk was killed very close to where I was living at that time. Several of the people who worked with the kids involved ended up taking stress leave. One lost his mind.
There's a lot more to the Kelly Ellard story than hits the media. Many of us feel that the Crown kept insisting that Ellard was the killer when it goes against logical interpretation of the evidence. I've got no problem with Ellard being convicted and have no doubt she's guilty of contributing to Virk's death. But I have a big problem with the way this case was prosecuted.
"Is it possible that Ellard was blamed because Victorians just couldn't stomach the notion that they had raised a whole gang of little shitheads? Was it easier to single out one guilty party? Did our need to delude ourselves override justice? I think so.
'In the first trial, I think this was the case. While Glowatski was also later convicted, the "trial by media" was overwhelmingly on Ellard in the Victoria and Vancouver papers. I was living in Victoria doing a co-op job at the time and I remember one headline over a picture of Ellard calling her "the devil incarnate" or something. And every story mentioned her looks. I think the almost supernaturally evil scorned girl-killer angle was just more enticing than the idea of a teenage gang formed in a very neglected group home area.
"I really don't see Reena Virk's death as a gang murder. Nor do I think it was primarily racially motivated.
Kelly Ellard was a teenager (17?) at the time of the murder. And this crime was quite different than Homolka's. And, in both cases, the media was really irresponsible in their coverage.
"Lastly, I really disagree with hate crime legislation. It's creeping into the area of prosecution for thought crime.
"I think Ellard's behaviour since the murder is a little more interesting than her behaviour that night.
As the judge noted, she's on trial for murder and she still won't keep her shit together. I think if I were trying to convince the world that I wasn't a violent person then I'd take extra special care not to pick stupid fights with strangers over nothing. Maybe I'm just exceptional that way.
"My concern is with the way "deals" are made and accomplices seem to get off because they are willing to rat out someone. And I guess if I was facing some damned serious charges and could get off by ratting on someone...anyone...and I was of a personality which had been eager to participate in the offence..I'd rat out anybody, make up anything...credence was given to the testimony of these nasty brats as if they were really nice kids... their stories were given validity in spite of the fact they were a pack of little arstles bullying someone who obviously didn't have a hope in hell of "winning" against them.
"I do not object to having Kelly Allard in jail. I object to the fact there probably won't be any effective treatment for her obvious personality disorder and I really object to the way the police and the crown have handled this case.
"Are we only employing the Keystone Cops these days?
"Such a fekkin fuss over the frappichino (whatever in hell it is) and two kids have been killed at Sky Train stations in Vancouver...beaten to death, stabbed...and all the damned media can do is harrass and hound two particular head cases... and I guess it's just my paranoia that those two high profile wing nuts happen to be female, eh?
"They called her a "paki" because she was East Indian. I don't think that makes it a hate crime. She was attacked for not being part of the "in crowd." Her race was a secondary issue, as far as I can tell.
"Had she been something else, they would have called her something else. Had she not been a member of a racial minority, they would have focussed on her weight.
"As for being a fucking disgusting crime, you're certainly right on that.
"I think she is a very angry and fucked up person. That is a personality disroder -- even if she is compos mentis.
"Being angry and fucked up is not a personality disorder.
"There were a number of reasons apparently that these little shit heads did this thing, but among things like that she was fat and she belonged to what a lot of people think is a freaky religion she was also East Asian. So, race was an activator, both in the crime, and almost certainly in the events leading up to the crime.
"I'd be surprised about that one, specifically because I happen to know [since she lived across the street from me at the time] that one of Virk's attackers was a Pakistani Muslim. Doesn't mean race -or religion- wasn't part of it, but I doubt that particular slight.
"It is a pack mentality and todays youth don't hold helping old dears across the road as making them popular, they have a violent culture installed in them through the media. You are popular for being hard, someone not to mess with. Unfortunately, i think that with regards to the virk and shearer murders these elements spirelled out of control.
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http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/07/07/ellard_testimony040707.html
"In the second day of testimony in her own defence, accused murderer Kelly Ellard said she had no role in the drowning of Reena Virk.
"INDEPTH: Virk timeline
"Ellard's second-degree murder trial in the death of 14-year-old Reena Virk is in its fourth week. Ellard's first trial was in 2000.
"Virk died during a Nov. 14, 1997, attack near Victoria's Craigflower Bridge. She had been hanging out with several other teenagers when she was beaten.
"FROM JULY 6, 2004: Ellard admits punching Virk
"In testimony on Tuesday, Ellard admitted striking Virk because she believed Virk was planning to hurt Ellard's friend. But Ellard said she didn't follow Virk as she stumbled across the bridge to get away.
"Ellard denied assaulting Virk at the other side of the bridge. She also said no to several more questions from defence lawyer Michelle Daneliuk.
"Did you hold her under the water?" "No," said Ellard. "Did you tell anyone you killed Reena Virk?" "No." "Did you kill Reena Virk?" "No."
"Ellard, who was 15 at the time of Virk's death and is now 21, said another teenager, Warren Glowatski, and two other girls continued to beat Virk on the bridge's north side, holding her under water.
"Glowatski was convicted of second-degree murder in 1998 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for seven years.
"In earlier testimony, Glowatski contradicted Ellard, saying he and Ellard followed Virk across the bridge, where they beat her and drowned her.
"Ellard says she left the scene as Virk crossed the bridge, and waited at a bus stop for 10 to 15 minutes. She says Glowatski then appeared and told her Virk was in the water with two girls.
"Six people were convicted in 1998 in the assault of Virk. They cannot be named under provisions of young offenders legislation.
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