Scammer
Banned
The wife of convicted killer Russell Williams intends to file for divorce but is asking an Ottawa court to keep her financial and medical records sealed, fearing the media attention the proceedings will bring.
"She does not want the undue attention that will likely be focused on what is a very personal matter," Mary Elizabeth Harriman's lawyer, Mary Jane Binks, told the Ottawa Citizen on Tuesday.
Harriman would have to produce tax returns and other financial and personal information, including medical records, to go ahead with divorce proceedings.
Binks told the newspaper that if the court grants the publication ban, there likely would be "virtually nothing to report" about the divorce proceedings.
"To the extent she wants all her financial and personal records sealed, it's going to be tantamount to sealing the whole show, really," Binks said. "For practical purposes, it would be a ban on anything."
Williams, former commander of CFB Trenton, was sentenced to two life terms in October for the first-degree murders in Ontario of Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 38, of Brighton and Jessica Lloyd, 27, of Belleville.
The 47-year-old pleaded guilty on Oct. 18 to more than 80 crimes, including the murders, two counts each of sexual assault and forcible confinement, and 82 break-ins and attempted break-ins. He is imprisoned at Kingston Penitentiary.
Williams and Harriman married in 1991. Harriman has not spoken publicly about the case and did not appear at the sentencing hearing of her husband.
But Harriman is a co-defendant with her husband in a $2.45-million civil lawsuit launched by one of Williams's sex assault victims. The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, claims the "horrific and reprehensible" attack has left her fearful and suicidal. She is also suing Harriman, claiming Williams fraudulently transferred an Ottawa property to his wife in an effort to defeat Jane Doe's claim.
In her statement of defence, Harriman says Williams did transfer his interest in their home and other assets, but it was a "domestic contract" they executed and there was "nothing untoward or suspicious about the transfer."
"She does not want the undue attention that will likely be focused on what is a very personal matter," Mary Elizabeth Harriman's lawyer, Mary Jane Binks, told the Ottawa Citizen on Tuesday.
Harriman would have to produce tax returns and other financial and personal information, including medical records, to go ahead with divorce proceedings.
Binks told the newspaper that if the court grants the publication ban, there likely would be "virtually nothing to report" about the divorce proceedings.
"To the extent she wants all her financial and personal records sealed, it's going to be tantamount to sealing the whole show, really," Binks said. "For practical purposes, it would be a ban on anything."
Williams, former commander of CFB Trenton, was sentenced to two life terms in October for the first-degree murders in Ontario of Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 38, of Brighton and Jessica Lloyd, 27, of Belleville.
The 47-year-old pleaded guilty on Oct. 18 to more than 80 crimes, including the murders, two counts each of sexual assault and forcible confinement, and 82 break-ins and attempted break-ins. He is imprisoned at Kingston Penitentiary.
Williams and Harriman married in 1991. Harriman has not spoken publicly about the case and did not appear at the sentencing hearing of her husband.
But Harriman is a co-defendant with her husband in a $2.45-million civil lawsuit launched by one of Williams's sex assault victims. The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, claims the "horrific and reprehensible" attack has left her fearful and suicidal. She is also suing Harriman, claiming Williams fraudulently transferred an Ottawa property to his wife in an effort to defeat Jane Doe's claim.
In her statement of defence, Harriman says Williams did transfer his interest in their home and other assets, but it was a "domestic contract" they executed and there was "nothing untoward or suspicious about the transfer."
