Retired detective William Harkema, 72 and infirm, hobbled into B.C. Supreme Court on two ski-pole canes intent on testifying against an old nemesis.
Yet the Vancouver Police Dept. officer most responsible for putting Ivan Henry behind bars for a series of 1980s sexual assaults had little memory of events 33 years ago and downplayed his role.
He insisted he was the “co-lead” investigator, not the “lead” as numerous documents identify him.
Although Henry was not in court Monday, with the city presenting its case, there was tension in the room.
Two conflicting, adversarial stories have clashed during the last two months of proceedings: Henry’s plea for compensation for an ordeal of wrongful conviction and 27 years imprisonment versus the city’s insistence that notwithstanding a 2010 acquittal ordered by the B.C. Court of Appeal, he is not innocent.
