Five things you should know about Ivan Henry

While the lawyers representing the City of Vancouver and federal government have thrown in the towel in the Ivan Henry wrongful conviction lawsuit, the provincial government continues to battle.

Henry, who served 27 years after being wrongly convicted of a series of sex crimes in 1983, is seeking unspecified damages.

Vancouver Sun columnist Ian Mulgrew has the latest HERE.

Here are five things you should know about Ivan Henry.

1 HIS CONVICTION: Ivan Henry was convicted in 1983 of raping three women, attempting to rape two others and five indecent assaults. The attacks, which occurred between May 1981 and June 1982, were carried out against women living in ground floor or basement suites in the Mount Pleasant, Marpole and Kitsilano areas. Henry, who has a history of psychiatric issues, represented himself at his 1983 trial.  After his conviction, he was designated a dangerous offender, meaning his prison sentence remained indefinite. He maintained his innocence all along and tried repeatedly to get his case reopened.

2 HIS PAST:  Ivan William Henry was born Oct. 22, 1946 in Regina, Sask. Henry suffered abuse at the hands of his stepfather. At 12 years old, Henry reported the abuse to child welfare authorities and he was taken into care. His early adult life included multiple prison stints for drug trafficking and property crime. His first arrest was at 16. At the time of his arrest in Vancouver, Henry was on mandatory release after serving most of a five-year sentence for an attempted rape in Winnipeg.

Ivan Henry police lineup from the 1980s. HANDOUT PHOTO.

3 HIS APPEAL: In 2008, after Henry had already served 25 years, new evidence was gathered that cast doubt on his conviction. Independent special prosecutor Len Doust told the province it should not oppose re-opening his case. During a Vancouver police review of old sex cases spurred by the murders of serial killer Robert (Willie) Pickton, evidence was uncovered that implicated another man of the crime Henry was convicted of committing. Vancouver police reviewed sex crimes that occurred in the city during the 1970s and 1980s identified a pattern of offences that suggested a single perpetrator, dubbed the “rip-off rapist” by the VPD. In 2009, three B.C. Court of Appeal judges unanimously ruled to reopen the appeal of Henry.  The court quashed his convictions in 2010, citing a number of legal errors and a botched police investigation. Henry had been convicted solely on identification by the victims, a process the appeal court ruled flawed. The court referenced a shocking police line-up photo that included Henry, restrained in a headlock by an uniformed officer, surrounded by what are believed to be plainclothes police, all of them smiling

A free man at last after 27 years in jail, Ivan Henry, with daughters Tanya and Kari after being acquitted of 1983 rape charges in Vancouver on October, 27, 2010.

4 HIS FAMILY: Henry had two daughters, Tanya and Kari, who were aged nine and seven when their dad was taken into custody on July 29, 1982.  In 2009, after their father won the right to an appeal, Tanya explained how tough it had been to grow up with a father convicted of 10 sex offences. “We were judged by the public and harshly looked upon,” she said. “It’s been a huge family secret. We were kicked out of neighbourhoods and moved around many times to try to hide who we were. Over the years, we’ve come to realize things were wrong.” Daughter Kari died from an overdose earlier this year at 39. Her mother Jessie, Henry’s ex-wife, was the same age when she died of an overdose.

5 HIS LAWSUIT: In 2011, Henry filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court against the City of Vancouver, the provincial and federal governments and three members of the Vancouver police department seeking unspecified damages. Both the city (representing the VPD) and Ottawa have both agreed to settlements, leaving only the province still fighting the compensation lawsuit.