Warning: This story contains graphic and disturbing content.
An inmate admitted on Thursday he murdered Robert Pickton in prison because the serial killer continued to brag about his crimes.
Martin Charest pleaded guilty to fatally assaulting Pickton with a broken broom handle at the Port-Cartier maximum-security federal penitentiary in May 2024.
“I killed Robert Pickton for the victims,” Charest said, appearing by video from a prison in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Que. “I know that we can’t take justice into our own hands, but I killed him for the victims, not for myself.”
Charest pleaded guilty to first-degree murder during a court appearance in Sept-Îles, Que., northeast of Quebec City.
Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six counts of second-degree murder, but confessed to killing a total of 49 women whom he lured to his pig farm near Vancouver.
Robert Pickton had been in hospital since May 19 after being the target of what Correctional Service Canada called a “major assault” at the maximum-security Port-Cartier Institution in Quebec. The 74-year-old B.C. man had been found guilty of murdering six women in the Vancouver area, but had bragged about killing 49.
A statement of facts read out in court detailed how Charest locked himself into a room with Pickton on May 19, 2024, and assaulted him twice while guards were unable to enter.
Charest, who has a lengthy criminal record, managed to “manipulate” the door lock in order to make it difficult for prison staff to open. Then with Pickton in the room he closed the door — which could not be opened from inside — and knocked him to the ground, punching and then kicking him, according to the statement read by a prosecutor.
Blocked from entering, prison staff released gas into the room, “which [had] the effect of temporarily making Mr. Charest step back.”
The guards tried to convince Charest to leave, but he instead grabbed the broomstick and stabbed Pickton as he lay on the floor, breaking the handle in his head.
Pickton never regained consciousness, and died 12 days later in hospital on May 31, 2024, at the age of 74. His cause of death was “blunt polytrauma,” according to the statement of facts.
Charest told the judge that Pickton continued to talk “loud and clear” about his crimes, and had said “that if he were released, he would continue to commit crimes.”
The day he decided to kill Pickton, Charest said, the serial killer told another inmate he would have liked to have cannibalized a child who had belonged to one of his victims.
“I lost control, Mr. Judge,” Charest said. “It’s regrettable, but it happened, and I don’t have any remorse.”
Charest confirmed that pleading guilty was his own initiative. “It’s my choice, and my family’s,” he said.
Prosecutor Mélissa Hogan said there would be no victim impact statements on Pickton’s behalf, adding that the serial killer had a brother who didn’t want to speak.
Charest was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. In sentencing him, Superior Court Justice Carl Thibault noted that Charest’s victim had been guilty of “the worst atrocities a person can commit towards others,” but that he still had the right to serve his sentence “in safety.”
Correctional Service Canada convened a board of investigation after the death and issued three recommendations, including for the prison to reduce accessibility to items that are used or transformed for purposes that jeopardize security, according to a case summary released earlier this year.
