Robert Pickton prison beating risks jeopardizing any future cases: former officer

As serial killer Robert Pickton remains in hospital in Quebec following an attack by a fellow inmate, thoughts turn to the victims and their families and their pain.

Alan Mullen, a former corrections officer at the Kent Institution in Agassiz, B.C. when Pickton was incarcerated there, told Global News on Wednesday that some of that pain comes from knowing that if Pickton dies now, some of the truth will die with him.

“It’s no secret that Robert Pickton didn’t act alone here,” Mullen said, speaking of the many missing and murdered women believed to have been killed on the Pickton farm. “If you talk to (Pickton) or listen to (Pickton), it’s pretty obvious that he did not act alone,” Mullen added.

While many don’t want to hear about Pickton ever again, Mullen said, this is about getting justice for the victims and their families and loved ones.

“If he dies, yes, a lot of information and truth that we may be able to garner from him through further investigation, dies with him and that’s concerning to me,” Mullen added.

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More than 14,000 exhibits were seized from the Pickton farm during the investigation and as more technological advances are made in DNA and forensic analysis, Mullen said the hope has always been that more information will come to light.

2:32 Beating of Robert Pickton in maximum security prison raises questions

Meanwhile, many are also left wondering how the assault happened in the first place. Mullen said when Pickton was incarcerated in Agassiz, he never had any contact with other inmates.

“He lived in a unit alone,” Mullen said. “So to hear that he has been seriously assaulted at Port-Cartier Institution in Quebec, I’m actually very shocked. I’m really at a loss as to how that would happen.”

Mullen said the information that he was given is that Pickton was housed with the inmate who attacked him and that inmate had just been released from segregation for assaulting another inmate.

“It makes no sense whatsoever why the most notorious, prolific serial killer in Canadian history would be housed with an individual like that.”

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

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