The wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged a Bermudian court to reopen the investigation into the 1996 slaying of a Canadian teenager.
Cherie Booth, a human rights specialist, is the lead lawyer for the family of Rebecca Middleton, a Belleville Ont. teenager who was murdered while on vacation in Bermuda in 1996. Middleton had been raped and stabbed repeatedly and died before paramedics arrived on the scene.
Two suspects, Kirk Mundy and Justis Smith, had been charged with Middleton's murder. Mundy received a five-year prison sentence as an accessory to the crime and agreed to testify against Smith. However only Mundy's DNA was found at the scene and Smith was eventually acquitted of Middleton's murder in 1998.
Booth argued Monday authorities have mishandled the case by only obtaining Mundy's conviction, which she considered too lenient.
"Astonishingly, this is the only sentence either man has served for this hideous crime,'' said Booth, a human rights specialist. "They've expressed no remorse for the fact that Rebecca was abused, dehumanized and killed."
Booth's comments came on the first day of a review into Middleton's death.
A judicial review will begin this week to decide whether a previous decision by the prosecutor in Bermuda to disallow any new charges still stands.
"What we're hoping for is Chief Justice (Richard) Ground -- who is going to review this -- will look at our petition which says that there is sufficient reason, cause, and evidence to review the case," David Middleton, Rebecca's father, said from Bermuda on Monday.
"The other part of the hearings that he is going to hear over the next two days is the (Bermuda's Department of Public Prosecutions) position, where they say there is no further action that should and could be undertaken," Middleton told CTV's Canada AM.
James Guthrie, a lawyer for the prosecutor's office, said Middleton's family suffered "great injustice,'' but it would be illegal to reopen the case against the two men.
Attempts to retry Smith were rebuffed because it was decided that he could not be put on trial for a second time for the same crime under the legal principle of double jeopardy.
The Middleton family pressed for the case to be renewed after Bermuda's top prosecutor, Vinette Graham-Allen, decided last year not to consider new charges against the two suspects despite the emergence of new forensic evidence.
The hearing will provide the Middleton family a forum to air their concerns over the handling of the case.
"We have a right not to be abducted, not to be raped, not to be tortured and so on, and if someone violates those, then you can be accountable for that," said David Middleton.
Middleton's mother, Cindy Bennett, has argued that authorities could consider fresh charges of sexual assault, torture or kidnap.
"This has been so badly handled so far, from the lack of getting the right evidence from the crime scene or doing the right testing,'' Bennett said.
The family has received help with legal bills from the Rebecca Middleton Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping crime victims that has raised money in Bermuda and Canada.
With files from The Canadian Press
