LONDON, Ontario, Nov 28 (LSN.ca) – Edward Gratton, 67, received a mere conditional sentence for his involvement in the murder of a 16 year old girl in 1967. Gratton, 34 at the time, had sex (statutory rape) with the girl and held Glenda Tedball down while her own mother, Norma Poore, aborted her baby – killing her in the process. Poore hid her murderous secret until her death in 1999. The unsolved murder case was reopened after her death at the urging of Glenda’s father Glen Tedball.
Gratton plead guilty to procuring an abortion after the Crown agreed to withdraw a charge of culpable homicide. For the abortion, while it was illegal, and for concealing the murder for all these years, Justice Bruce Thomas gave Gratton a conditional sentence of two years less a day to be served in the community, followed by probation. Gratton is said to have had limited mental capacity, but the sentence did not suggest a stay at one of Canada’s institutes for the criminally insane.
For more see the CP coverage at: https://www.canada.com/cgi-bin/cp.asp?f=/news/cp/stories/20001124/national-1459041.html