From cbc.ca
Canada's top court will not hear a complaint from a medical doctor who hired a hit man to kill a young patient who had accused him of sexual abuse.
The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed Thursday an application for leave to appeal from Josephakis Charalambous, with costs. As is standard practice, the court did not release reasons for its decision.
Charalambous had appealed to have all sexual references removed from his prison record, arguing his first-degree murder conviction did not have a sexual component.
He claimed he was wrongly labelled a "sex offender," a status that has affected his prison conditions, security classification and treatment programs. Correctional Service Canada relied on allegations rather than proven facts, he had argued.
Charalambous, who is serving a life sentence in B.C., was a family physician when he contracted the killing of two young patients, according to court documents.
In 1991, 19-year-old Sian Simmonds and her sister, Katie Simmonds, lodged complaints to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, accusing Charalambous of inappropriate sexual behaviour. Charalambous had been their family doctor for 10 years.
The college scheduled a disciplinary hearing for March 1993, but just weeks before, on Jan. 27, Sian Simmonds was shot and killed by David Schlender, a hired hit man who made his way into her home by saying he had scratched her car.
Her sister was not home at the time.
In November 1994, Charalambous was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole for 25 years. The trial judge ruled it was a contract killing he had arranged through an acquaintance, Brian West, to prevent the Simmonds sisters from testifying before the college.
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