TORONTO — A man already serving a life sentence for murder and facing charges in another slaying was charged Thursday with the alleged serial killings of three prostitutes in Toronto more than a decade ago.
Peter MacDonald, 52, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of the women. They were all found between 1994 and 1997 in Lake Ontario near Sunnyside Beach and all three had been strangled.
He was on the radar of Toronto police back in 1994, said Det.-Sgt. Steve Ryan, who defended why it took so long to charge him, and suggested some new evidence came to light.
“Over the past 16 years and within the last little while we’ve managed to come up with an extra piece that we needed to charge him,” Ryan said.
Officers had spoken to other sex-trade workers they have talked to in the course of the investigation about the charges, Ryan added.
“They are very happy with the outcome,” he said. “They’ve maintained their credibility and they’ve stayed on side with us the whole time. They were very pleased with the result.”
MacDonald is serving a life sentence in Kingston Penitentiary for the second-degree murder in Toronto in 2000 of James Campbell. He admitted to strangling Campbell, his casual sex partner, but said he was provoked while they were having sex.
The native of Prince Edward Island was also charged in January with second-degree murder in the death of Michelle Charette, whose body was found in a field in Windsor, Ont., in 2000.
There is no information to indicate Charette was a sex-trade worker like the women in Toronto, said Windsor police.
It is believed that Charette and MacDonald knew each other from the neighbourhood, said Windsor police Sgt. Brett Corey.
MacDonald was originally charged with second-degree murder in Charette’s death in 2003, but the charge was withdrawn after a preliminary hearing, said Corey.
“I understand that he was transferred back up to Toronto at that time and there was some other charges he was dealing with up there,” Corey said.
Like Thursday’s charges in Toronto, Corey pointed to new evidence as the reason police were able to charge MacDonald this year in Charette’s death.