A little more local of a story now. In February 2002, police arrested Willie Pickton and charged him with the murder of 15 women. It's big news as this dude was completely despicable in his method. He picked up poor, downtrodden women - many prostitutes, and took them back to his farm in Coquitlam, where he killed them and apparently fed them to his pigs.

Since the arrest, the police and forensics people have gone through every inch of the farm, searching for strands of DNA to try and at least sort out how many women lost their lives in this way. Of course, as is common in Canadian justice, there is a wide-sweeping media ban. So most of what is known about this case is rumour and innuendo. I have heard stories of there being up to 100 women dead, and accounts of bacon and ham being sold off the farm containing the DNA of these people.

Now it looks like the trial will be delayed until 2006. It just astounds me! I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like for the families of the victims, knowing that they must live in some sort of pergatory. Being fed tidbits of information while the lion's share is kept underwraps until the trial.

Meanwhile, Pickton lives in the jail. Charged but not tried. There's part of me that wonders what his defence lawyers might try to do regarding his lack of a speedy trial. By the time this goes through, the man will have lived in custody for 4 YEARS without a trial. If there is even a molecule of doubt in this case, and while I suspect that in itself is what they're trying to avoid, he will have an incredible case against those that have jailed him.

Every day, witness memories fade. Time erodes the evidence. Well, maybe not DNA, but all the other stuff. And with the public being shielded from most of the evidence, it gives us a sense of "out of sight, out of mind". It just really concerns me that the whole thing is being dealt with in a poor way. He's already charged with 15 murders. Would delaying the trial to be able to charge him with another 30 change the final result? The creep will be in jail the rest of his life anyhow!