More than a year after the police chief in Saint John, New Brunswick, announced a review of his officers’ conduct in the case of two men wrongfully convicted of murder, there’s no sign of the promised report.
Chief Robert Bruce said he had ordered a “comprehensive review” of the investigation that resulted in Robert Mailman and Walter Gillespie serving long prison sentences for a 1983 murder they did not commit.
Saint John police spokesman Staff Sergeant Matt Weir said last week he has no timeline for when the findings will be made public.
Meanwhile, Mailman — who has terminal liver cancer — says he thinks he will die before he sees the review or receives an apology from the police.
The review was announced eight days after New Brunswick Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Tracey DeWare exonerated the men and said they had been victims of a miscarriage of justice. Earlier, federal Justice Minister Arif Virani had ordered a new trial citing evidence that called into question “the overall fairness” of their prosecution.
Bruce said he had commissioned Allen Farrah, a retired senior RCMP officer, to “carry out an independent review solely focused on the investigation” by the Saint John police. Farrah is the owner and sole employee of the investigative consulting firm Clear-Path Solutions, Inc., based in Hanwell, N.B.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
Reached by email, Farrah said he would not be commenting on the Mailman-Gillespie review and directed questions back to Saint John police.
The court document noted that Saint John police had given a total of $1,800 — in addition to hotel and relocation costs — to a 16-year-old who testified in 1984 that he had witnessed the murder of George Leeman in Saint John. The payments were not disclosed during the trial. The witness, John Loeman Jr., later recanted his story to his own lawyer, to a journalist, in two letters and to a federal Justice Department lawyer looking into Mailman and Gillespie’s case in 1998.
“This case was a disgrace,” James Lockyer, founding director of Innocence Canada, told reporters outside the courthouse last year after the two men were acquitted. “It was simply a case where the ends justify the means from the police perspective.”
With files from The Canadian Press’ Hinda Alam
© 2025 The Canadian Press
