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Huron Expositor, 2006-06-28, Page 11News The Huron Expositor • June 28, 2006 Page 11 Investigating officer takes stand in Truscott hearing Cheryl Heath Lawyer Joseph Irving took to the stand Thursday as Truscott looked on with his daugh- ter Lesley by his side. Irving was on hand to field questions about the state of the six boxes related to the Truscott mat- ter, which were located in the late Arthur Martin's storage facility. Irving, who edited a book of Martin's essays, was asked to locate any Truscott-related items he could by retired justice Fred Kaufman during a review. He told the court of appeal that he firmly believed the items contained in the boxes, which were stored by Martin's former law partner, were sound. "It would completely shock me if Bob Carter, without any good reason, would allow anyone to have • access to those files," said Irving. When Lockyer asked whether Martin felt the Truscott case was an important one from a his- torical standpoint, he replied, "absolutely." Harry Sayeau had worked his way up to the title of OPP Chief Superintendent when he retired from the force in 1979, but it was a case 20 years prior to that which brought him to the court of appeal. Sayeau took the stand on Thursday afternoon to answer queries about the days leading up to Truscott's arrest. At the time, Sayeau was a corporal with the Goderich detachment of the OPP where they worked out of a one -storey Park Street house where the 12 -member force's coverage area included the Zbwnship of Tuckersmith where the air -force base stood. In those days, said Sayeau, the department did not have the benefit of the accoutrements of today, including photocopiers and faxes, which meant every note was copied either on a type- writer or by hand. Sayeau told the court the Truscott case started out as a missing person's report when Lynne's father, Flying Officer Leslie Harper, called the police, to report his daughter had not come home. June 11 marked the day when 250 search team members, including police and military person- nel,.began to look for the girl. That afternoon, the missing person's report turned into a murder investigation, and it was that point, said Sayeau, that Inspector Harold Graham was called in from Toronto. Once Graham was on the scene, which Sayeau said was about 8 p.m., Sayeau became the scene investigator. Sayeau still has the_ original notebook he used during the investigation, and it was that book and a copy of it that consumed much of the testi- mony. Indeed, Sayeau first learned another copy of his notes existed in 1966 when the reference for the Supreme Court was under way. When Sayeau was contacted by the AGO during its review, he had earned the rank of Chief Inspector, and was working in the trans- port branch of OPP headquarters in Toronto. The copy, said Sayeau, had wording somewhat different from that in his origi- nal one. When asked why he had not simply sub- mitted his original notes when Crown attorney Glenn Hays asked to see them, Sayeau said: "I didn't want to lose my orig- inal notes so I used that (the second copy) as a safeguard." During an examination by the AIDWYC team, the court heard the officer's wording varied from the original notes. AIDWYC lawyer Marlys Edwardh cited as an example that Lynne's stomach con- tents went from being described as con- taining what "appears to be meat" to "indi- cates" meat with "either turkey or ham" spelled out as opposed to the original refer- ence of "possibly ham" in brackets. (The court is aware Lynne's last meal contained turkey as testified to by her parents.) In addition, statements made by three witnesses that did not mesh with the Crown's theory were kept from the original defence team, said the AIDWYC defence team. The AIDWYC team noted Sayeau dis- missed eyewitness reports, like the one made by then nine-year-old Karen Daum with the phrase, "She was a cute little girl, Time of death explored through testimony on stomach contents Nicholas Diamand, a self -described special- ist in the "disorders of the gut," was the first person called to the stand in the Ontario Court of Appeal hearing for Steven Truscott. Diamand, a faculty head at the University of Toronto, spoke on so-called "gastric empty- ing" as it relates to the original pathologist's estimated time of death for Lynne Harper. When asked: "Are you saying stomach con- tents, cannot give information that narrows and gives a precise time of death?" Diamand replied, "That is correct." Diamand also told the court meat in a stom- ach is not a reliable indicator as to time of death because it tends to stay in the system longer than other types of food, as long as six hours after it is consumed. . At the conclusion of the session, Justice David Doherty asked Diamand to estimate a time of death considering it is known Lynne ate her last meal at about 5:45 p.m. Diamand said a reasonable estimate would be in the five or six -hour range "or beyond." Dr. John Penistan's suggestion that Lynne had to have died between 7:15 p.m. and 7:45 p.m., June 9, 1959 played a key role in Truscott's conviction for murder by a jury in a Goderich courtroom. Morris Manning, who had served as an articling student at the Attorney General's Office when it was preparing for a 1966 Supreme Court hearing on the Truscott case, was called to. the stand in the afternoon. James Lockyer, part of the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted (AID- WYC) team attempting to clear Truscott's name, lobbed a number of questions Manning's way. but she had to be wrong." Under questioning, Sayeau also informed the court of appeal that the OPP did not attempt to contact any other OPP branch about a possible child rapist/murderer in the area nor did the police contact the RCAF to see if it had any per- sonnel fitting the profile. _ Sayeau toldthe court that although 'a Clinton resident had furnished police with a list of carni- val workers from the Clinton Spring Fair, none of those people were contacted either. SEAFORTH 527-0120 EXETER 235-2121 www.teamvincent.com CASE lil FUTURE LINKS JR. 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