OTTAWA -- A lawyer for a man facing charges in the robbery of a 101-year-old war veteran says a leak linking her client with an Ottawa triple homicide turns the case into a witch hunt and a media circus.
Several media outlets, using unidentified sources, say Ian Bush, 59, is being investigated in the 2007 slayings of three people. The Ottawa Citizen says Bush is expected to be arrested on Friday in the homicides.
The reports link Bush to the deaths of retired tax court judge Alban Garon, his wife, Raymonde, and their neighbour, Marie-Claire Beniskos, who were found dead in the Garon's Ottawa home.
Bush is charged with attempted murder, robbery with violence, forcible confinement, and break and enter in a home-invasion robbery in Ottawa last December.
Bush's lawyer, Geraldine Castle-Trudel says he is at the Royal Ottawa Hospital in Ottawa undergoing a psychiatric assessment and she's heard nothing about additional charges.
Ian Bush's lawyer Geraldine Castle-Trudel tells CFRA/CTV that her client "vehemently denies" accusations to triple murder in 2007 @CTVNews
— Joanne Schnurr (@JoanneCTV) February 17, 2015
Ottawa police say they are not commenting on the reports, but Castle-Trudel said Monday she's concerned with who leaked the information.
"Why was it done like this? Is this just some irresponsible employee who's acting out of turn," she asked.
"If in fact the Ottawa Police are going to charge him with something, why wait four days," she said. "They know where he is, he's in custody -- go and charge him."
Castle-Trudel also said the leak turns the case into "a kind of free-for-all witch hunt and media circus."
"Whenever you're into a situation where there's a suggestion 'we've solved an unsolved case', the real concern ... (is that) in the desire to solve an unsolved case you make it fit when it really doesn't," she said.
