Robert Pickton, a notorious Canadian serial killer, is on life support after he was attacked by a fellow inmate at the maximum-security prison where he’s serving a life sentence.
The Correctional Service of Canada said that Pickton, 74, was involved in a “major assault” on May 19, though it declined to provide additional details about the man’s current condition or confirm how the attack unfolded.
“The safety and security of institutions is paramount and an investigation into what occurred is currently underway,” a spokesperson for the agency said. In an earlier statement, officials said that the attacker had been identified and appropriate actions were being taken.
According to the Vancouver Sun, Pickton was being held in Port-Cartier Institution, a maximum-security prison in Quebec that holds 237 men, when a fellow inmate speared him in the head with a broken broom-like handle around 2pm, the outlet reported.
It’s thought that the inmate who attacked Pickton had served a stint in solitary confinement after going after other inmates. The prisoner was later released into the same unit as Pickton.
The serial killer was transported to the Hospital of the Child Jesus in Quebec City following the attack. Pickton’s attorney has not yet responded to The Independent’s request for comment.
In 2007, the killer was convicted of murdering six women — Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Marnie Frey, Georgina Papin and Brenda Wolfe — after a trial in British Columbia. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of full parole for 25 years. He became eligible to apply for parole in February.
The remains of 33 women were found on Pickton’s pig farm in Port Coquitlam, and the serial killer has claimed to have murdered 49 victims. At one point, he was charged with murdering 21 women but most of the counts were later dismissed.
Families of some of the victims have campaigned against a police application seeking to destroy evidence related to cases against Pickton, the Vancouver Sun reported, claiming that they could be useful someday if DNA technology can eventually tie him to the murders of the other women.
Pickton released a self-published memoir in 2016, but it was quickly removed by Amazon.
