
Joseph George Sutherland, convicted of killing 2 women in Toronto in the '80s, sentenced to life
CTV
The man who confessed to the brutal 1983 murders of two women in Toronto has been sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 21 years.
The man who confessed to the brutal 1983 murders of two women in Toronto has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 21 years.
The sentence was handed to Joseph George Sutherland by Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell in a downtown Toronto courtroom on Friday.
Back in October, Sutherland pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice.
"The two murders that Mr. Sutherland committed were profoundly serious," Forestell said. "They were killed in their homes, which should have been places of sanctuary. The impact of violence has continued to be felt by other victims, in this case, families and friends."
Gilmour, the daughter of mining magnate David Gilmour, was 22 years old when she was stabbed, strangled and sexually assaulted in her Yorkville apartment on the night of Dec. 20, 1983.
Earlier that year, Susan Tice was found stabbed to death after being sexually assaulted in her Bickford Park home, just a few kilometres away from Gilmour’s apartment.
Sutherland was not arrested for nearly 40 years. The court heard he considered turning himself in at several points during that time but opted against it.