Crown seeking 4th trial for Badgerow

Hamilton’s crown attorney’s office wants a 54 year old former steel worker to face a fourth trial in an unsolved 31-year old murder.

A lawyer who represented Robert Badgerow in three previous trials, says if he does stand trial again, it will be “the first case of any kind in Canada to go to a fourth trial in the face of an application to prevent it”.

Nursing assistant Diane Werendowicz was killed in 1981 and it took 17 years before police charged Badgerow. In a 2001 trial Badgerow was found guilty and spent almost 11 years in jail before his conviction was overturned by appeal. In his second and third trials, juries were unable to deliver a unanimous verdict.

Last month the murder charge against Badgerow was stayed. Papers have now been filed to appeal that decision.