What the Jury Didn't Hear

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for weeks the jurors in Michael Rafferty's trial have heard the evidence much of it difficult to listen to tonight they are sequestered beginning to decide if Rafferty murdered eight-year-old Tori Stafford Canadians to have heard about that evidence but until now many disturbing details about Michael Rafferty have been kept from the jury and from you tonight we can show them including newly released video tape of a police interrogation in which we hear from the accused himself the CBC's Steven D'Souza has covered the trial extensively and has the details for us tonight from London Stephen Peter they're sifting through the evidence from 62 witnesses 190 exhibits but there's a lot the jury didn't see the jury saw Michael Robert II every day of the trial but heard from him just once in a brief audio clip of a police interview as a blanket for either okay they didn't see or hear this videotape of a full police interrogation the night he was arrested it shows Rafferty's initial denial I didn't do entirely true it also shows the detective comparing him to one of Canada's worst serial killers am i sitting across the desk from Paul Bernardo here I might sitting across from someone who's made a mistake okay and that's gonna be the question that's Austin yeah all right get there just a second [Music] I gotta get sick believe booth sir okay I've seen it before you're not gonna fan here both of you so you got to be sick Mike or in hit and it shows a dramatic confrontation between Rafferty and teri Lynne McClintock the woman who was accusing him of killing Tori Stafford this is your opportunity teri Lynne sitting right here tell us she's a liar you've got no problem that's and with her out over the room Terry's a liar that's what you're hoping the crown chose not to show this tape to the jury but there was other evidence the judge didn't let it use because it went to Rafferty's character and that's not allowed in Canada observers say that means a jury didn't get the whole story a troubling picture of Rafferty did emerge in testimony but it doesn't show how a ladies man could progress into someone who allegedly raped and murdered a child observers say what the jury didn't hear could fill in those blanks the jury heard how Rafferty spent a lot of time surfing online dating websites but it didn't hear that when he wasn't on dating sites Rafferty was searching for child pornography among the search terms police found underage rape and real underage rape pictures are you on your way to school well come on I'll give you a ride they also found the movie Gardens of the night on Rafferty's computer about a blonde eight-year-old girl who was kidnapped and sexually abused this would make us also on the laptop Karla the 2006 movie about Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka that was downloaded more than a month after Tori's disappearance so why didn't the jury hear any of this the information came from Rafferty's laptop found in his car investigators had a warrant to search the vehicle but they didn't have one to search the laptops contents it was ruled in pretrial motions that police violated Rafferty's privacy and the evidence was thrown out in the final weeks of the trial the crown tried to use an exception to get just the internet searches included into evidence but because the defense never made Rafferty's character an issue and he never took the stand they were denied history has shown us that using character to decide whether someone actually committed the offense being prosecuted or not is a bad gauge that some of the evidence the crown couldn't get in but there was a lot of other evidence evidence the crown felt was just too prejudicial and decided not to introduce at all the jury didn't hear about another internet search the best program to download child porn he also didn't hear from all of Rafferty's ex-girlfriends some of whom told police they had concerns about his behavior towards their children there were also allegations Rafferty had raped a woman he met online in January 2009 but it was deemed consensual and no charges were laid when it comes to what does and doesn't end up in a trial it can be easy to second-guess I think we have to step back as a whole these people are doing their jobs at the end of the day and if they everyone did their jobs right and justice will be served now the jury has retired for the night and will be back here tomorrow at 9:00 to continue to decide michael Rafferty's fate Peter all right Stephen thanks very much Stephen D'Souza reporting to us tonight from London

Info

Channel: CBC News: The National

Views: 186,860

Rating: 4.2795496 out of 5

Keywords: Tori Stafford, Michael Rafferty, murder

Id: dX7RuWA1Jbc

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 5min 19sec (319 seconds)

Published: Thu May 10 2012

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