A Master of Deception by Robert Knuckle

Author:Robert Knuckle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO027000 TRU000000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Law Enforcement TRUE CRIME / General
ISBN: 9781771238304
Publisher: General Store Publishing House
Published: 2014-06-02T16:00:00+00:00

Carl MacLeod, 1982.

As damning as this evidence seemed to be, the police and the Crown decided it wasn’t enough to assure a conviction against Patrick Kelly. No charges were laid, and the case remained an open file at Toronto Police Headquarters.

And it stayed that way for almost two years.

During that time, Patrick Kelly married Jan Bradley. They moved to lush accommodations on the French Riviera and lived in the lap of luxury, squandering Jeannette’s insurance money at a torrid pace.

When those funds ran out, Kelly continued to live high on the hog by borrowing money wherever he could and by running up huge debts on several of his credit cards.

But Patrick Kelly’s audacious lifestyle came to an abrupt halt on February 10, 1983.

That’s when Dawn Taber called Detective Ed Stewart and confessed to him that she had been in Kelly’s condo at the time that Jeannette Kelly was killed.

She told Stewart she was in the den and heard Patrick hit Jeannette in another room. Then she saw him carry her out on the balcony. When Dawn went out on the balcony, she saw Patrick standing there with a vacant expression on his face. Then she looked over the edge of the balcony and saw Jeannette lying motionless, seventeen floors below on the loading dock.

Dawn Taber’s evidence was all Stewart needed. He arrested Patrick Kelly for murder on March 2, 1983.

Kelly’s trial began in April 1984. Dawn Taber’s crucial testimony convinced the jury that he was guilty and he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for twenty-five years.

Subsequent appeals of Kelly’s case went to the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada and were denied. Later, when Dawn Taber partially recanted her damning testimony against Kelly, the case was sent to the Minister of Justice for review. He sent it to the Ontario Court of Appeal to consider Taber’s new information. They ruled that Taber’s new information would not be admissible on appeal.

No one can say for certain why Dawn Taber altered her testimony. Some argue that she was lying during Kelly’s trial, some claim she was emotionally frail and mentally confused. Others insist she recanted her testimony because she was still in love with Kelly and wanted him out of jail. Still others believe that she is under Kelly’s Svengali-type control.

Detective Ed Stewart says, “I don’t think she changed her story that much anyway. I do know she was deathly afraid of him. She told me repeatedly, “I’m terrified of Pat Kelly.”

No matter why Dawn Taber changed her story, Kelly had to serve his full time. And he is now out of prison. Although he seems to be keeping a low profile, he has been seen on the streets of Victoria.

Wherever he goes, it would appear that he is unconcerned about the scar he left on the image of the RCMP and the dark shadow he cast over the reputation of thousands of honest, hard-working Mounties.

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