Gaps in Crown’s case against B.C. father charged with killing daughters: defence

VANCOUVER — A defence lawyer laid out five problems with the Crown’s theory in its case against Andrew Berry, the Vancouver Island father accused of killing his two young daughters.

Kevin McCullough told the jury in closing arguments that the prosecution couldn’t fill in the gaps for the time of death of the girls, the alleged suicide attempt by Berry, a motive for the crime, the forensics and Berry’s financial situation.

Berry is charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of his daughters, four-year-old Aubrey and six-year-old Chloe, in his Oak Bay home on Christmas Day 2017.

He was found in his bathtub with stab wounds to his throat and chest and told the jury earlier that he was attacked by a man with dark skin and hair, but the Crown has suggested his wounds were self-inflicted. 

McCullough said the Crown’s case was circumstantial and there was no evidence to show that Berry stabbed himself.

He also told the jury the blood spatter expert was “in over her head” on a job she was doing for the first time.

The Canadian Press