Serial killer Robert Pickton attacked in Quebec prison

Notorious B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton has been the victim of a brutal attack in prison.

Pickton was attacked on Sunday in Quebec’s maximum security Port Cartier Institution.

The Vancouver Sun is reporting that Pickton was speared in the head with a broken handle, possibly from a broom, by an inmate who had previously attacked other inmates.

2:42 Full review into Pickton’s attack needs to be done, former correctional officer says

Quebec provincial police said Pickton, 74, was taken to hospital with injuries that are considered life-threatening.

They said the injuries left officers “fearing for” Pickton’s life.

Police spokesman Hugues Beaulieu added that a 51-year-old suspect is in custody and the Major Crime Investigations Division is investigating.

Correctional Service Canada confirmed in a statement that the assault did not involve any staff.

“We are not able to disclose any additional details, including medical information,” the organization said.

“The safety and security of institutions is paramount and an investigation into what occurred is currently underway.”

Sandra Gagnon, the sister of Janet Henry who has been missing since 1997 and is believed to have been one of Pickton’s victims, told Global News she suspected someone might eventually attack Pickton in prison.

“He’s a real evil monster, what he done to the women, and it’s taken a lot out of my family,” she said.

2:53 Families of Pickton victims protest day parole eligibility

Pickton is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years after being convicted of six second-degree murder charges.

Alan Mullen, a former correctional manager for Correctional Service Canada and former corrections officer at Kent Institution in Agassiz, told Global News that he is shocked by the news that Pickton was attacked.

“I was correctional manager from 2008 to 2017 and, when inmate Pickton was at Kent Institution in Agassiz, B.C., he had no interaction with any other inmate. He lived in a unit alone,” Mullen said.

“So to hear that he has been seriously assaulted at Port Cartier and in Quebec, I’m actually very shocked. I’m really at a loss as to how that would happen.”

Mullen said because Pickton is such a high-profile offender he should have had no interaction with any other inmate as he would be a target for assaults or threats.

He said Correctional Service Canada needs to examine what happened.

“A violent offender who had been previously segregated, is my understanding, for inmate assaults, is then put in close proximity in the same unit to the most notorious serial killer in Canadian history,” Mullen said.

“I wouldn’t want to be on the Review Board of that decision,” he added.

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“(Pickton has) been incarcerated, you know, since 2007, and he has never had those interactions. And why all of a sudden, he would have those interactions at a maximum security institution is a little bit baffling to me.”

Mullen said being a corrections officer, especially at the federal and maximum security levels, is a very difficult job.

“There’s always threats of violence, there’s always violence,” he said.

“Correctional officers have to do the job of so many different professions all in a given day. That said, with an offender like Pickton, he was actually very easy to manage because he posed no threat to correctional officers.

“He was never involved in, you know, sort of staff assaults, so it was just making sure that other inmates didn’t have any interactions with him because obviously, you know, he was primed for an assault.”

Mullen said, from his understanding, Pickton is on life support in hospital.