Williams trial: disturbing details
Posted Oct 19, 2010 04:30:43 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
More shocking testimony is expected today at the trial of Colonel Russell Williams in a Belleville courtroom.
Details are expected on how Williams murdered two young women, including one who was a corporal he had worked with.
Yesterday, the packed courtroom heard stunning details about the secret life of the man who once ran Canada’s largest military air base.
Images were shown of Williams dressing in little girls’ underwear and other women’s undergarments while masturbating.
Williams was charged in February with first-degree murder in the deaths of Jessica Lloyd and Corporal Marie-France Comeau.
While women across the country react in fear and disgust to the crimes committed by Colonel Russell Williams, experts say is case is extremely rare.
Especially chilling is evidence showing Williams broke into the bedrooms of young girls, laid out their underwear and photographed himself masturbating.
But experts say while compulsions or sexual fetishes such as those Williams harboured are not uncommon, acting on them is.
And, killing someone while acting them out is extremely rare.
Marnie Rice, a psychologist at the Mental Health Centre in Penetanguishine, says she hopes women won’t be terrified people like Williams are wandering around.
She says he is in a category almost all his own.
Meanwhile, the military is moving immediately to drum Colonel Russell Williams out of its ranks.
Within hours of the guilty pleas, the process was started to strip him of his rank and medals, and to expel him from the force.
The military says it is working as quickly as possible to remove Williams, but the process could take up to 30 days.
Williams was relieved of his command as head of C-F-B Trenton when two murder charges were laid last February.
However, a Canadian Forces spokeswoman says he will still have a right to his pension.
And details of Williams’ crime fall under the category of “Too much information” for some.
That’s the reaction to some to the graphic and uncensored descriptions of evidence sent out by reporters on Twitter about the Williams case.
Disturbing details of his sexual assaults, break-ins and fetishes upset some social media users.
One said the live tweets made her feel sick and depressed and another called the posts a nightmarish ticker tape in her office that she had to mute.
But others felt the information was important, and found themselves glued to the feeds.
Christopher Waddell, the director of Carleton University’s journalism school, says just because you can report something doesn’t necessarily mean you should.
He urged journalists to be ethical and consider what purpose the information is serving.
