Judge in Rafferty trial to give final instructions to a London jury

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Michael Rafferty trial continues Thursday when the judge is expected to give out final instructions to a London, Ont., jury before the deliberations begin. Rafferty, 31, is an alleged sexual assaulter and kidnapper of an eight-year-old Ontarian girl.

Rafferty has been charged with first-degree murder, sexual assault causing bodily harm and kidnapping of Victoria (Tori) Stafford. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

Det. Sgt. Jim Smyth told the London jury: “I could see a portion of a garbage bag underneath the rocks. I moved one rock aside. I touched the bag because I didn’t know if it was a piece of scrap.” Inside the bag was Tori’s remains, he told the court.

In 2010, Rafferty’s ex-girlfriend Terri-Lynne McClintic pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. Young Tori was kidnapped when she was walking back home from Oliver Stephens Public School in Woodstock, Ont., on April 8, 2009.

Crown attorney Kevin Gowdey said: “McClintic did not do this by herself. Whatever the suggestion may be, she was, in the Crown’s submission, the violent pawn that Michael Rafferty used to make this happen for himself.”

On Tuesday, defence lawyer Dirk Derstine questioned the authenticity and reliability of McClintic’s statements. Earlier, McClintic testified against Rafferty, calling him the main plotter. McClintic accepts luring the girl for Rafferty who took her to Guelph and later to Mount Forest and raped her. The defence insists that McClintic testimony should not be assumed reliable.

She “has perjured herself over and over and over again,” said lawyer Dirk Derstine. “There is no real way that you could find that she did anything other than poison the entire atmosphere of this courtroom while she was in it.”