‘Tunnel vision’ of N.B. police blamed for wrongful convictions of two men

A new report says “tunnel vision” led to a wrongful conviction in Saint John, N.B., decades ago.

ST. JOHN, N.B. — “Tunnel vision” was the main shortfall of an investigation in the 1980s that led to the wrongful conviction of two men who spent years in prison for a murder they didn’t commit, police in New Brunswick said Friday.

The Saint John Police Force released an independent review saying investigators at the time did not have the tools they have now.

“(Tunnel vision) refers to a narrow focus that distorts the interpretation of evidence,” Saint John police Chief Robert Bruce told a news conference. “It is not based on ill intent, but does influence an objective assessment of the facts.”

In May 1984, Robert Mailman and Walter Gillespie were convicted of killing George Gilman Leeman in Saint John a year earlier. Sentenced to life in prison, they were exonerated of second-degree murder in January 2024 after a court ruled they had been victims of a miscarriage of justice.

Gillespie spent 21 years in prison. He died last April at the age of 80, four months after he was cleared of the crime. Mailman, who spent 18 years in prison, turns 77 next week. He has terminal liver cancer.

“If the Saint John police would acknowledge their mistakes and make the full report public, I would be satisfied,” Mailman said Friday in a brief statement.

The report released Friday is a summary of an independent review conducted by Allen Farrah, a retired senior member of the RCMP. The report does not include redacted elements such as confidential information about witnesses, said Bruce.

“The biggest failure or shortcoming in this investigation was that once the investigators focused on Mr. Mailman and Mr. Gillespie, they stayed on that track and looked for evidence that would support their case,” he said. “Today, we would look at a broader picture.”

None of the police officers involved in the original investigation will face any consequences, Bruce said.

“Some are dead. Some are not very healthy,” he said. “There’s nothing that would indicate that they would ... require any discipline. There was no malicious intent to railroad people.”

Innocence Canada, which led the legal fight to free the pair, made a submission to the New Brunswick Court of King’s Bench in January 2024, alleging “police tunnel vision, non-disclosure of important evidence, recantations by the two Crown witnesses,” and a disregard for the men’s strong alibis.

As well, Innocence Canada argued that investigators gave a 16-year-old witness $1,800 -- but the payment was not disclosed during the trial for the two accused. The witness testified that he had witnessed Leeman’s murder, but he later recanted his story.

Gillespie alleged several times that he was told to sign a false confession indicating Mailman had killed Leeman. At the time, police told him he would be sent to prison for life if he refused to sign, he said.

In an earlier interview, Mailman said he, and subsequently his friend, was targeted for prosecution because of previous brushes with the law.

Jerome Kennedy, an Innocence Canada lawyer who represented the two men, described the independent review as superficial. But he said it was “better than the whitewash that we expected.”

While tunnel vision played a role, he said, Mailman’s brushes with the law are not mentioned in the review.

“It was a classic case of the ends justifying the means,” Kennedy said. “We have this 17-page summary ... that does not and will not erase the wrongs that were done to these men.”

During Friday’s news conference, Bruce said the case against Mailman and Gillespie was eventually thrown out because it was later determined that new and significant information had not been submitted to the court at the time of their trials or appeals.

“The sole focus of this investigation was an independent witness whose story was inconsistent,” the senior officer said. “We couldn’t get the collaborating evidence. Today, that wouldn’t happen.”

The original investigation was influenced by “historical factors” no longer present in modern policing practices, Bruce said. Since then, there have been significant changes in the law, new policies governing law enforcement, advancements in technology and increased checks and balances, he said.

Investigators now handle witnesses differently, he said. The rules regarding how defence lawyers disclose evidence to the Crown have been changed, he added.

“We echo the Court of King’s Bench in expressing our profound regret to Mr. Mailman and Mr. Gillespie,” the chief said. “We have taken all reasonable steps to mitigate the circumstance of this situation ever occurring again.”

By Hina Alam

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 7, 2025.

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