Lawyers for five women who were sexually assaulted in Vancouver decades ago say their clients are grateful they won a civil lawsuit against a man acquitted of the crimes due to state misconduct.
The B.C. Supreme Court awarded the five plaintiffs $375,000 each in damages from Ivan Henry for attacks in the early 1980s, in a case that set off decades of legal battles over his wrongful conviction, for which he won $8 million in his own civil lawsuit in 2016.
Vancouver lawyers Irina Kordic and Kevin Gourlay represented the five women in the lawsuit and say in a statement that the plaintiffs felt they'd been left "voiceless" in the years since he was released, as a public narrative emerged that he was an "innocent man."
They say the "brave women" were left with no choice but to file a lawsuit to confirm what they have said for over four decades, that Henry was the man who sexually assaulted each of them.
The statement says the women hope the legal system will not only focus on offenders' rights in cases of wrongful convictions, after Henry's case was heavily scrutinized without considering "the rights of the women he sexually assaulted."
Emma Cunliffe, a law professor at the University of British Columbia, says the victims in Henry's case were "shut out" as he pursued damages for his wrongful conviction, and the civil legal victory for the women reflects that a wrongful conviction doesn't necessarily equate to innocence.
