Friday, May 11, 2012

Deviance, Perversion Inadmissible


Mr. "Fresh Jive" himself, Michael Rafferty
McClintic has been pictured wearing the same shirt.
And he says she wasn't his girlfriend.
Riiiiight.


While the Michael Rafferty jury is deliberating over the fate of this accused child killer, the rest of Canada is learning about the incriminating child pornography evidence found on a number of his computer devices. The evidence, including Google searches for "real underage rape" and "best program to download child porn," were ruled inadmissible in court by Judge Thomas Heeney.

Further computer evidence suggested that Rafferty had recently been in possession of a substantial amount of child porn, along with instructional videos illustrating how to sexually assault young children. Rafferty's proclivity toward deviance was also demonstrated by his Internet searches for "naked girl seizing," and "epileptic girl naked." 

Judge Heeney also refused to admit evidence that Rafferty enjoyed choking out his partners, an extreme sexual act in which a person is strangled, often to the point of passing out. At least 12 women (not including McClintic) were willing to testify that Rafferty had choked them for sexual gratification, but were never given the opportunity to take the stand.

I can think of at least one other violent sexual offender who was known to have practised sexual choking; Karla Homolka testified that her ex-husband, Paul Kenneth Bernardo, was fond of fastening an electrical cord around her neck during sex for the purposes of strangulation. 

It is interesting to note at this point that among Michael Rafferty's collection of digital smut and sinister searches, investigators also found the movie Karla, which is based on the unforgettable crimes of Bernardo and Homolka.

Crime columnist Christie Blatchford, who also covered the cases of Homolka, Bernardo, and Runaway Devil, offered her commentary on why Judge Heeney ultimately decided not to allow these powerful pieces of character evidence against Rafferty to be examined in court, along with her thoughts on what such broad decisions mean to the justice system as a whole. Although Canada officially maintains an immense amount of faith, hope, and pride in the jury system, so often are important evidentiary facts kept beyond the reach of those who the court system has given the crucial task of deciding innocence or guilt.

Update:

At 6:18 PM on Friday, May 11th, Michael Thomas Rafferty was convicted of the first-degree murder of eight year old Tori Stafford. He will be sentenced on Tuesday, May 15.


More Information...

By Christie Blatchford @ The National Post

Internet Movie Database Article

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