Welcome to my Crime and Justice blog! I am a 19 year old criminal justice student at the University of Winnipeg. I advocate for prisoners' rights, human rights, equality and criminal justice/prison system reforms.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

In police interview, Kociuk denied rape but now admits it


- DNA evidence proving he had sex with her, accused killer Robert Kociuk remained adamant he didn't know Beverley Dyke, jurors heard Thursday.
- "It's not mine.... Impossible," Kociuk told police during an April 2005 interview at Millhaven Institution, where Kociuk was serving time for robbery.
- "That's impossible. It's not mine. It can't be mine," a visibly stunned Kociuk told homicide detectives in a 2005 videotaped interview
- Semen taken from the 48-year-old victim had been matched to a DNA sample from Kociuk, thanks to advancements in modern technology. But Kociuk repeatedly denied even knowing Dyke during his interview.
- "I think you guys got your wires crossed here. I don't know this lady," he said. Kociuk claimed he saw a television documentary that stated the U.S. attorney general "makes mistakes over 90 per cent... 95 per cent of the time."
- "Why would I have anything to worry about?" he asked.
- "I'm a bank robber, not a (rapist)," Kociuk told police in a videotaped interview played for jurors.
- "It's not nice for anybody to go through anything like that," he said. "I have very strong thoughts about sex offenders. I certainly don't want to be accused of being one."
- “I didn’t have one night stands,” he said. “I wasn’t a jump-in-the-sack kind of guy ... I didn’t go around chasing women.”
- "It's very difficult to attack this kind of science," Det. Sgt. Al Bradbury told Kociuk. "It's been proven."
- Police arrested Kociuk for robbing a bank the same day Dyke's body was discovered. Police who had been following Kociuk spotted him a day earlier in the vicinity of the murder scene. When questioned about the killing, Kociuk told police he was in the area waiting for a man to deliver a gun.
- Kociuk provided a second DNA sample to police following his April 2005 interview. Winnipeg police arrested him the following November.
- On the day he was arrested, Kociuk said the only woman he had sex with at the time of Dyke's death was his girlfriend.
- "I didn't have one night stands," he said. "I wasn't a jump-in-the-sack kind of guy... I didn't go around chasing women."
- Kociuk denied a suggestion he had his girlfriend's car burned following his robbery arrest to destroy any evidence connecting him to the murder.
- "Why would I be worried about it when it's an impossibility you have my DNA in the first place?" he said.
Kociuk appeared calm and sombre for much of the interview but showed flashes of anger when police continued to press him for answers.
- "We're getting into some heavy s... here and I'm not supposed to talk about it," he said. "You people are notorious for manipulating things and twisting them to your favor."
- Kociuk has since conceded having sex with Dyke but denies killing her.
- Kociuk has changed his original story and is now admitting he had consensual sex with the woman but denies killing her. An autopsy revealed Dyke was raped and stabbed 13 times. Her partially nude body was found in a wooded area near the city's airport.
- The murder case against Kociuk is complicated by the fact someone else previously admitted to the slaying. Leonard White -- who was killed in 1999-- made the admission during a 1988 interview at a penitentiary in Prince Albert, Sask. where he was serving an 8 year sentence for aggravated assault.
- Police discounted his claim, saying they believe he falsely confessed in an attempt to stay in prison with his gay lover. Police testified last week White had a history of making false confessions whenever his eligibility for parole was upcoming and only knew facts about Dyke's case that had already been revealed publicly through the media.
- Police always look for if a suspect knows more about the murder case, than was reported.
- White claimed another man named "Ricky Morris" raped Dyke, but police said exhaustive police efforts could find no evidence such a person even existed.
- Kociuk was initially interviewed as a potential suspect because he was seen by police in the area where the killing occurred on the day before Dyke's body was found by a jogger. Kociuk had been under police surveillance for armed robbery and claimed he was meeting someone to buy a gun for his next heist.
- The heist indeed took place two days later at a bank-- the same day that Dyke's body was discovered.
- Does that mean Kociuk is telling the truth?
"Wrong guy. I do holdups. You guys know. I don't do murder," Kociuk told detectives at the time.

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