Town wins battle against deer page 3
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SPOTLIGHT The Similkameen
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Volume 65 Issue 5
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Princeton woman not guilty of arson Dale Boyd Black Press
A Princeton woman was found not guilty of starting the fire that burned three Princeton homes, including her own, in Penticton Supreme Court Friday. Ashley Patricia Gallagher was acquitted of three counts of arson in relation to an inhabited property and three counts of arson damaging property relating to a massive blaze in March 2014. “I’m relieved the truth has spoken loud and clear,” Gallagher said outside the courthouse after being acquitted of all six charges. She said she felt her character had been under fire as well during the two-year long process culminating in the trial that started Tuesday in Penticton Supreme Court. “It’s a lot of rumours and my life has been on hold for two years,” Gallagher said. The Crown’s case relied entirely on circumstantial evidence of the fire that left multiple Princeton residents without a home on March 27, 2014 due to the lack of any objective evidence from fire investigators. “We normally see more forensic evidence and I think that it bears some consideration that there was an independent fire investigator from the fire commissioner’s office, there was a forensic identification from the RCMP, the fire chief was also involved and there was just no evidence that pointed to Ms. Gallagher’s involvement,” said Gallagher’s defence counsel Don Campbell. Crown, defence and presiding Justice Elliott Myers found the lack of evidence surprising. “I have to say the lack of objective evidence in this case is quite shocking,” Myers said when Crown and Defence were making their final submissions Friday morning after the week-long trial. Crown prosecutor John Swanson admitted in his final submissions that if Myers was unable to believe the statements made by Gallagher’s ex-boyfriend Robert Cormack, then he must acquit. Cormack told police in an interview the morning after the fire that Gallagher had threatened to burn his snowmobile after an argument between the two,
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Three homes on Fenchurch Avenue, as well as a garage and several vehicles, were detroyed by fire March 27, 2014. Last week a Princeton woman was found not guilty of arson in Supreme Court. The judge said there was a “shocking” lack of objective evidence in the case.
who were living together and in a romantic relationship at the time. Myers did not buy the inconsistent evidence put forward by Cormack. “(Cormack’s) evidence at the preliminary inquiry did not refer to the threats,” Myers said in his decision. “The second version occurred after Mr. Cormack was shown his statement to police. Here he said Ms. Gallagher did make the threats.” Cormack said during his testimony at trial that he assumed the threats were known to the court during the preliminary inquiry, as they were made in his police statement, something
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he didn’t think was necessary to reiterate. During cross examination, Cormack acknowledged that it was possible the interviewing officer introduced the idea that Cormack heard the flicking of a lighter and the sound of pouring liquid during a phone conversation between Cormack and Gallagher on the day in question. “I think it also bears some consideration that part of the evidence against Ms. Gallagher appears to have been generated by a Constable Dylan when he interviewed one of the primary witnesses he was leading him as to aspects of the case which the witness
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then adopted under oath,” Campbell said after the verdict. “This is a case where it has taken a long time to get to the bottom, but I think Ms. Gallagher and her family is relieved that it’s come to an end,” Campbell said. “None of that undermines the tragedy to these people of losing their homes and all of their belongings. Ms. Gallagher certainly lost everything that was important to her in the fire, and to her daughter, and the loss of that has affected a number of people. That’s a tragedy and I think a lot of people can now move on.”
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