Christmas will be a difficult time for the family of murdered eight-year-old Tori Stafford after a long-standing publication ban on details of the case were lifted, her grandmother said yesterday, adding that she "can't forgive" an Ontario woman who had pleaded guilty to murder.
Doreen Graichen said the family had been told a sweeping publication ban preventing media from revealing any information from a court case would be lifted months ago. A ruling from Canada's top court resulted in the lifting of the ban on Thursday.
She said she doesn't understand why the information, specifically Terri-Lynne McClintic woman had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, had to be released right before the family gathered for what is expected to be a very difficult Christmas.
"This is the absolute worst time of the year for it to come out. I can't understand why it couldn't have been put off … past the holidays and into the New Year," Graichen told CTV's Canada AM on Friday.
"If we had to wait this long, why not just go a little further?"
McClintic pleaded guilty to first-degree murder when she appeared in an Ontario court in April, just over a year after Stafford first disappeared.
Details about Stafford's disappearance were revealed in that hearing. Until Thursday, that information was not allowed to be released.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said on Friday that he hopes Stafford's family can begin to heal after "horrific" details of her murder were released.
McGuinty told reporters in London, Ont., that the court's decision meant Tori's brother, mother, father and community would have to relive "this terrible experience."
"The hardest part is that it is two weeks before Christmas now," Graichen said. "My grandchildren were not aware of anything that did happen; now they will be. Last year was the first Christmas we had to experience without Victoria. This Christmas will be hard again because now the kids will know a little bit of the reason behind it all."
McClintic admitted that she struck up a conversation with Stafford the day she disappeared after leaving her school in Woodstock, Ont., in April 2009.
Stafford was the first child McClintic saw when she approached Oliver Stephens Public School that day.
The two talked about dogs and Stafford agreed to come see a shih tzu that McClintic said she owned.
A few hours later, McClintic went to a local Home Depot to buy garbage bags and a hammer.
Police have never revealed how Stafford died, but the court revealed that her death was caused by multiple blunt force impact.
Stafford's body was found three months after she disappeared, in a field north of Guelph, Ont., more than 100 kilometres away from where she lived with her family in Woodstock, Ont.
Prior to Thursday, a publication ban prevented the media from reporting details on McClintic's case.
But when the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in the matter, those details could be publicized.
Steven Skurka, CTV's legal analyst, said the publication ban may have been put into place to ensure another person charged in Stafford's death received a fair trial.
"There was this notion that if all of this information surrounding McClintic's plea was released to the public essentially it would poison (the person's) ability to have 12 jurors come into the courtroom and try his case properly," Skurka told CTV's Canada AM.
Skurka said the scope of the ban was unsettling and led some people to think that McClintic may have received some sort of plea bargain.
"We now know that is not true, we know that she has pleaded guilty to the most serious charge known in criminal law known as first-degree murder," Skurka said.
When McClintic entered her plea to the court in April, she entered a statement about her actions.
"I didn't wake up that morning thinking I would take a child," McClintic said, adding that she was "honoured to have been able to spend even a brief amount of time with such an amazing person."
Graichen, who was in the courtroom when those statements were made, said she felt sick to her stomach when McClintic said she was honoured to spend time with Stafford.
"It's not my place to forgive her for anything, in my own opinion. I can't forgive her and I never will. She took my granddaughter away. We don't have Victoria because of that day. That is something we have to live with for the rest of our lives," Graichen said.
McClintic's first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence.
Michael Rafferty, 30, is charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in the same case. He has been committed to trial on those charges.
With files from The Canadian Press
