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Utilizing forensic evidence that was ignored by the police, and documents that have never before been released to the public, Alan Strachan has produced the horrific account of a man who was wrongfully executed for rape and murder -- even though it is quite possible that there was neither a rape nor a murder. Both were capital crimes in Canada in 1942 and the accused was British -- a 21-year-old Royal Air Force sergeant whose wife and one-year-old daughter remained in Peterborough when he was sent to New Brunswick to help train Canadians for the war effort. As soon as the trial ended, records were sealed, and anyone interested in documenting the proceedings was told that the transcript would not become available until 2042. But Strachan pursued the matter in 2015 and became the first in more than fifty years to be given full access to that transcript. He then acquired an original copy of the preliminary-hearing transcript, believed to be the only one in existence. Because freedom-of-information laws have been revised since 1942, he was also able to access the original Royal Canadian Mounted Police internal correspondence as well as the diplomatic communications between Canadian and English bureaucrats. Those letters and telegrams document the dereliction of duty by those in power: a Canadian justice minister who went on to become the nation's prime minister; an ambassador who became governor-general; a member of the British royal family; and, of course, high-ranking RCMP officers. The only truly innocent person in this saga is the one who was executed.
Utilizing forensic evidence that was ignored by the police, and documents that have never before been released to the public, Alan Strachan has produced the horrific account of a man who was wrongfully executed for rape and murder -- even though it is quite possible that there was neither a rape nor a murder. Both were capital crimes in Canada in 1942 and the accused was British -- a 21-year-old Royal Air Force sergeant whose wife and one-year-old daughter remained in Peterborough when he was sent to New Brunswick to help train Canadians for the war effort. As soon as the trial ended, records were sealed, and anyone interested in documenting the proceedings was told that the transcript would not become available until 2042. But Strachan pursued the matter in 2015 and became the first in more than fifty years to be given full access to that transcript. He then acquired an original copy of the preliminary-hearing transcript, believed to be the only one in existence. Because freedom-of-information laws have been revised since 1942, he was also able to access the original Royal Canadian Mounted Police internal correspondence as well as the diplomatic communications between Canadian and English bureaucrats. Those letters and telegrams document the dereliction of duty by those in power: a Canadian justice minister who went on to become the nation's prime minister; an ambassador who became governor-general; a member of the British royal family; and, of course, high-ranking RCMP officers. The only truly innocent person in this saga is the one who was executed.