TORONTO — Ontario’s highest court swiftly dismissed an appeal Monday by the man convicted of killing eight-year-old Victoria Stafford.
Michael Rafferty was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 with no chance of parole for 25 years for kidnapping, sexual assault causing bodily harm and first-degree murder in the 2009 death of the Woodstock, Ont., girl.
Rafferty’s accomplice, Terri-Lynne McClintic, pleaded guilty in 2010 to first-degree murder.
McClintic was the key witness at Rafferty’s trial, telling a horrifying story of a drug-addled couple abducting a young girl at random for the man’s sexual pleasure, then killing her with inconceivable brutality.
Rafferty’s lawyer, Paul Calarco, argued that the judge made several errors, including failing to warn the jury against relying on the testimony of the “unsavoury” McClintic.
“I have not suggested…Mr. Rafferty had no involvement in this situation, but every person in our society is entitled to a legally correct trial and that, Mr. Rafferty did not receive and only a new trial can correct these errors,” Calarco argued.
But the appeal court judges dismissed Rafferty’s case before hearing the Crown’s oral submissions.
“You argued an extremely difficult appeal very well, but I simply don’t agree with you,” Appeal Court Justice John Laskin told Calarco.
Among those on hand to hear the appeal were Victoria’s mother, father, uncle, family friends and Woodstock Police Chief Bill Renton, who used to be with the Ontario Provincial Police and was the lead investigator on Victoria’s murder. Family and supporters cheered when the judges dismissed the appeal.
“We were here wasting taxpayers’ money, to be quite honest,” said Victoria’s father, Rodney Stafford. “We really had no reason to be here. All the information that was put forward in 2012 landed him where he was and that’s exactly where he deserves to be.”