By Michael Becker
News Editor

WEST Vancouver Police
are investigating an
April 2 home invasion
in the British
Properties.

Police spokesman Const.
Paul Skelton said seven to
eight “Indo-Canadian” men
broke in to a Millstream Road
home shordy before 2 a.m.
The group entered through a
basement sliding glass door
and made their way upstairs.

One of the intruders
sprayed an 18-year-old man, a
student visiting from Calga

Sunday. April 6, 1997 — North Shore News ~ 3

intruders hit home

Two assaulted,

in the face with a noxious su
stance.

Another of the four or five
people in the home at the t
of the intrusion was forced to a
rear balcony of the house.

The 19-sear-old Richmond
man was assaulted by several oF
the intruders. He suffered nwo
wounds to the back af his
neck. The injuries were caused
by a sharp object. The man wi
treated at Lions Gate Hospital
and released.

As the assault took place on
the balcony, one of the resi-
dents phoned the police. One
of the intruders cee what he

NEWS photo Mike Wax stield

Full concentration

WEST Vancouver fire inspector Joe Haggerty (right) helps a senior with a
fire extinguisher. Firefighters met with members of the West Vancouver
Seniors Centre on Wednesday to discuss fire prevention and the use of
fire extinguishers.

Sister of accused

hree arrested

was doing, punched the caller
and grabbed the telephone.

The suspects then fled the
scene. Responding police offi-
cers arrested three men in a
vehicle a shore distance from
the house. The others man-

d to escape. arrested,

‘om Burnaby and Richmond,
ange in age from 18 to 22.
The suspects were released.
Charges of assault are pending.
The police have recommended
additional charges.

Said Skelton, “This was not a
random act. Some of the intrud-
ers are known to the victims.”

— michacl@nsnews.com

News defence fund aaa

NORTH Shore News readers are putting
their money where their democratic principles
are,

Response to a March 26 News story outlining the
newspaper’s establishment of the North Shore News Free
Speech Defence fund has been immediate and gratifying.

Thus far donations fom News readers and tree specch
supporters have topped $9,000.

News publisher Peter Speck said that, until now, he has
felt very much alone on the free speech front.

“The expressions of support thrill me,” Speck said. “I
have been hearing from some very nice, very concerned
people. They don’t all agree with Doug, Collins, but all of
them agree with the right of free expression.”

All funds received will help defray the mounting legal
costs faced by the News in its battle with the Human
Rights Tribunal over a complaint laid against the newspa-
per and its columnist Doug Collins by the Canadian
Jewish Congress.

A hearing into the matter has been set for May 12,
almost three years after the complaint was orig: nally
lodged on May 26, 1994.

The News maintains that section 2 of the NDP-
authored Human Rights Code violates Canada’s Charter
of Rights and Freedoms by infringing upon the newspa-

"s right of fr pression and by extension infringes

ght of tree expression of all British Columbians.

r the News’ legal costs to defend it and Mr.

Collins in the lead-up to the Human Rights Tribunal hear-

ing have been substantial: almost $70,000. The hearing

will cost the Paper much more. And a case challeng-

ing the constitutionality of the Human Rights Code
before the Supreme Court could cost up to $200, 000.

Donations to the North Shore News Free Speech
Defence Fund can be svat co the News pittices, 1139
Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, V7M 2

should be made out to the §

Fund.

font Shore News

— trenshaw@direct.ca

ler takes stand

LGH surgeon explains
injuries sustained by
Caouette children

By Andre Ramshaw
Contributing Writer

REGULAR contact between an
accused axe murderer and his sister
came to an abrupt end after a brief
but ominous conversation 18 months
ago.

Marie Bowman told a trial Thursday that she
and Michel Andre Caouette spoke often until a
chat she had with him on his birthday, Oct. 10,
1995. He seemed upset about his wife’s divorce
moves.

Their sister in: Montreal had recently died,
bur Caouette was not interested in discussion.
Instead, she said, he wanted to talk about his
wife’s plans to seek a divorce and change their
son’s surname,

He left Bowman with a frightening warning.
“Because I didn’t do it right the first time, and
he survived, doesn’t mean he’s safe,” she quot-
ed him as saying. Caouette was in custody at the
time after being charged in July that year with
she first-degree murder of his daughter,

. 10-year-old sis

anicle, and the attempted niurder of Joshua.

Bowman said she and her brother mutually
agreed not to hold further conversations until
his trial was over, She denied they had quar-
reled. She further denied that, because of an
admitted past relationship with an abusive hus-
band, she was unable to be objecti e

Roxburgh, Caoverte’s former wile,
has stated she was often abused by him.

Thursday also saw graphic medical evidence
presented in court. A neurosurgeon who oper-
ated on both children said Joshua’s head was so
badly beaten with a “blunt and heavy ob;
that” he thou ght the boy would die
injuries to hi

Padilla said of the T4
er, Danielle, were attac
their father’s Lower Lonsdale apartment on the
morning of July 13, 1995.

Danielle died a week later in B.C. Children’s
Hospital.

Dr. Padilla, who works at Lions Gate
Hospital, said when the boy arrived at the emer-
geney ward that morning he had fost about a
third of his blood from thre separate and severe
blows to the right side of the head. “I can hon-

spect him to survive,” he told
B. C. Supreme Court Justice Allan Thackray and
a jury. He said the blows were delivered with
such force that brain and bone fragments w:
exposed,

Crown lawyers theorize that Caouctte went

after the children sith an axe so thar he could
send a cruel and vengeful message to his ¢x-
wife. “An object able to do this kind of damage
has be be blunt and heavy,” the dector testified.

The jury was shown a featureless Styrofoam

ad on which the boy's injuri depicted
in black ink. In red ink, Dr. Padilla drew circles
around the three wound sites where the skull
was broken. “Very considerable force is n

sary to break the skull,” he explained, adding

that on a scale of such injuries the boy's were
one less than that for gunshot wounds,

Tn answer to questioning from Crown pros-
ecutor Joe Bellows, Dr. Padilla said the boy,

yy brain-damaged, would not likely have
survived long, if not for prompt medical atten-
tion, “Hf he had remained at the scene (much
longer), he would nor have been alive for more
than two or three hours.

Though the boy's injuries were ere, Dr.
Padilla said he first operated on the girl because
her skull was weaker and because she had been
steuck on the vulnerable right side of the brain.
He said her skull shattered inward, suggesting a
heavy blunt object was struck hard and “pulled
with considerable effort out.”

Another Styrofoam head was shown to the
jury on which the doctor circled in red the sole
impact spot.

Ina rare display of emotion, C:.ouene, Iook-

ing down as the models sat on a tzble in front of

him, rubbed his eyes and dabbec: at chem with

a white doth or napkin, He has. rei

ained
expressionless through most of the proceedings
Also Thursday, Roxburgh continued to give

tearful testimony under cross-examination by
defence counsel John White. She agreed that
Caouette had always been good with the chil-
dren and that he often cooked meals while she
was out working.

She agreed the couple had sex after they sep-
arated but added: “If I didn’t submit he would
come back at me with something.” Moreover,
she said, “I submitted to years of sexual rela-
tions with him wichout really wanting to.”

She denied suggestions thar the couple's
relationship was abnormal in that he looked
after the children while she worked. “I had no
intention of going back to work when my chil-
dren were small,” she said, “but he wanted me
to go back to work te support his spending and
his « drinking.”

She added: “IT had to w
me for money all the time.

In carlier_ testimony, Roxburgh said that
semetime before the July 13 attack Caouette

d her for $200 to buy “some tools for a job
he was starting.” She borrowed the money and
gave it to him aver the course of a few day
Roxburgh has admitted to having three affairs
during the 16-year marriage that began in 1979

and ended in divorce last Septe: nber.

The three-week trial enters its final week on
Monday with the opening of the defence case.

. He was askin