OTTAWA — A man facing charges in the alleged robbery of a 101-year-old war veteran heads to court Friday with an even darker legal cloud on the horizon — one that at least one expert says has tainted the case against him.
Ian Bush is scheduled to be in an Ottawa court charged with attempted murder, robbery with violence, forcible confinement, and break and enter in a home-invasion robbery in Ottawa last December.
But a number of media outlets have reported that Bush, 59, is also being investigated in connection with a triple homicide that until recently was considered a case that had gone cold.
Bush's lawyer says it's clear police leaked the information linking her client to the 2007 deaths of retired tax court judge Alban Garon, his wife Raymonde and their neighbour, Marie-Claire Beniskos.
Criminal defence lawyer Michael Spratt says the leak before a charge is laid could make it difficult for Bush to get a fair trial.
At the same time, says Spratt, it will be all but impossible for Bush's lawyer to argue for a change in venue for a trial, in an age when news spreads like a virus over the Internet.
Police are refusing to comment on the leak, saying the case is now before the courts.
