Russell Williams’ wife wants a divorce

OTTAWA – The wife of convicted sex killer and former Canadian Forces Base Trenton commander Russell Williams intends to file for divorce.

Before she does, Mary Elizabeth Harriman is asking an Ottawa court for a sealing order to protect her from the "voluminous" national media attention she fears the proceeding will attract.

"She does not want the undue attention that will likely be focused on what is a very personal matter," Harriman’s lawyer, Mary Jane Binks, said on Tuesday.

In an affidavit filed last week at the Ottawa courthouse, Binks said both Williams and her client have been the subject of "immeasurable media attention." Binks said that in order to commence divorce proceedings from Williams, her client will be required to produce three years’ worth of tax returns and other financial and personal information, including medical records.

She is seeking to have those documents sealed in what her lawyer has described in court documents as a "purely personal matter" between her and Williams, who is serving concurrent life sentences in the Kingston Penitentiary.

If Harriman’s motion succeeds, Binks said there likely would be "virtually nothing to report" about the divorce proceedings.

"To the extent she wants all her financial and personal records sealed, it’s going to be tantamount to sealing the whole show, really," said Binks. "For practical purposes, it would be a ban on anything."

Harriman has been living apart from Williams since his arrest in early February.

Williams has since confessed to killing Jessica Lloyd and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau and pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault and 82 break and enters, including many in the east end of Ottawa, where he frequently photographed himself wearing children’s or women’s underwear that he had stolen.

Harriman, 53, also has sought a similar sealing order in a civil lawsuit filed against her and husband in Belleville, Ont., by one of his sex-assault victims. That woman, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, alleged that the transfer of the couple’s Ottawa home to Harriman’s name was done fraudulently to defeat the claims of Williams’ victims and creditors.

To defend herself appropriately in the civil proceedings, Harriman will be required to produce her financial information for a number of years, including her income, savings, assets, liabilities and transaction history.

She will also have to provide personal information, including both her physical and psychological medical history.

A motion on a sealing order in that case, which is being contested by the media, is expected to be heard on Jan. 25 in Belleville, although it may be postponed.

Binks said her client, who holds a high-profile job as associate executive director of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, has never sought celebrity and desperately wants to protect her privacy.

"It goes without saying, and you’re aware as much as I am, in the undue interest people have had in her," said Binks. "A lot of media has focused on her and it’s been awful for her."

Binks said Harriman wouldn’t formally file for divorce until after she knows the outcome of her motion seeking the sealing order.

"I will put forward no application until I know the court’s position in respect to the sealing order," said Binks, adding there will be an actual divorce hearing only if Williams contests it. "I’m not at liberty to say whether it changes what she does or whether it would change the timing of what she does."

Binks would not say on what grounds Harriman planned to seek a divorce and said her client – who wasn’t in court for her husband’s sentencing and has remained silent since his arrest – wouldn’t be commenting now.

Binks said the open-court principle in Canada requires Harriman to serve notice of her application to the media. One of the grounds for the motion listed in the notice of application was the requirement that the media be alerted when sealing orders are sought for matters in the public interest.

The court is expected to provide its ruling as to which media Harriman should notify, and by when, on Jan. 14. At that time, a date likely will be set for Harriman and any media with an interest in the case to argue their positions.

In her court filing, Binks proposed filing notice to the Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun, CTV/Globemedia and the CBC by Jan. 21.

The court filing also proposed that Harriman would meet with her lawyer to make a sworn statement in support of the motion on Jan. 18.