TORONTO – Accused serial killer Bruce McArthur made a brief appearance in a Toronto court Wednesday where his case was put over for another two weeks.
McArthur, a 66-year-old self-employed landscaper, is accused of murdering six men who had disappeared from or had ties to Toronto’s gay village.
Prosecutor Michael Cantlon told the court that the Crown had turned initial evidence over to McArthur’s defence, and would have more evidence to give them by the next court date, scheduled for March 14.
Most of the proceedings, which were under a court-ordered publication ban, dealt with technicalities related to McArthur’s latest murder charge, laid last week, and transportation problems that prevented authorities from bringing him to court to hear that charge in person.
McArthur appeared by video link from a Toronto detention centre Wednesday wearing an orange jumpsuit, his white goatee grown long, with wisps of hair covering his jaw.
He spoke only to say his name at the beginning of the appearance and to thank the court at the end.
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A longtime friend of Andrew Kinsman – one of six people whose dismembered remains police found in large planters at a home where McArthur did gardening work and rented storage space – said he felt angry seeing McArthur on the courtroom video screen.
“He looks tired, I’m happy about that, but I can’t be vengeful, I just can’t,” Ted Healey said. “Anger, that’s all I have.”
Healey said he wanted an explanation for Kinsman’s death.
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“I really want to know what happened,” he said. “The (court) process is slow and it’s agonizing seeing this drawn out. I really want it to end.”
Police have identified three sets of remains from McArthur’s clients’ house so far: Kinsman, 49, Soroush Mahmudi, 50, and Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40.
McArthur is charged with first-degree murder in connection with their deaths, and the presumed deaths of Selim Esen, 44, Majeed Kayhan, 58, and Dean Lisowick, either 43 or 44.