Wrongly convicted man’s name cleared

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Updated:

A man convicted of killing his common-law wife in Woodstock 45 years ago has had his name cleared.

John Salmon, 75, was convicted of manslaughter in the 1970 death of Maxine Ditchfield. He served four years in prison before being paroled.

According to the trial, Ditchfield died from a severe beating. But three pathologists who re-examined evidence from Salmon’s trial backed up his claim that his wife had fallen multiple times, and suffered a stroke.

After being exonerated, Salmon told reporters outside Osgoode Hall in Toronto “I’m feeling very good.”

His son Randy picked it up from there. “45 years is a long time. Pretty emotional; it doesn’t only affect him, it affects his kids, his grandkids, great grandkids.”

“We never probably got the love we deserved after this happened because my dad lost faith, and today I think we can say we have faith. Hopefully today we can move in the right direction and we can live out the rest of his years in happiness.”

The prosecution apologized to Salmon for a miscarriage of justice.