Gordon Abbott shocks on trial in Guelph
Convicted of first degree murder in 1997, Gordon Abbott, now 70, began his early parole hearing on Oct. 20 at the Guelph Superior Court and is maintaining his innocence over the brutal murder of his ex-wife, former Fergus legal secretary Patricia Abbott.
On Oct. 23, 1996, Patricia Abbott did not return to work, after having gone home to have lunch. Crown attorney Jocelyn Speyer detailed the gruesome scene to the jury: Ms. Abbott’s co-workers found the woman in her home’s front foyer, having suffered two blows to the head that penetrated to the bone, four gunshot wounds to the head, and two the chest. Police found no fingerprints at the scene, but had found a plastic cylinder with gunpowder residue inside of it, which was believed to have been a “makeshift silencer,” as noted by Speyer. The police never found the murder weapon.
Gordon Abbott’s trial for the murder began in 1997, and the evidence presented showed that Mr. Abbott and his ex-wife had separated in 1992 and that their marriage has dissolved a few months prior to the murder. At the time, Mr. Abbott’s friends and co-workers had knowledge of the animosity held between the ex spouses; one man even recalled at the trial how Mr. Abbott had wished she was dead. Another colleague, a machinist, recalled being asked by Mr. Abbott what a gun silencer was.
The Abbott relationship was particularly strained due to child custody and support payments. Ms. Abbott gained custody of their daughter, and one month before her death, a court order issued to Mr. Abbott to make payments that went up into the thousands. In his defense, Mr. Abbott claimed at the time that he had been at work at GSW, a Fergus water heater manufacturer, during the time of the murder. Signed testimonies by his co-workers, however, place him leaving work in his truck just before noon on the day of the murder. In the end, Mr. Abbott was sentenced to life with no option for parole for at least 25 years.
According to Canadian law, however, early parole applications can be sent to reduce the sentence to 15 years. 18 years later, Mr. Abbott has applied for early parole, maintaining his innocence in the murder of his ex-wife. During the earlier hearings held in the case of his early parole this year, Mr. Abbott has brought forward new allegations the court. The defendant informed Guelph Superior Justice Bruce Durno how he had, for most of the years between 1985 and 1993, smuggled in expensive and, most likely, stolen cars by transport truck from America, for $5, 000 each run. Mr. Abbott also asserted to the court that his ex-wife was actually killed when she attempted to blackmail a mysterious American car smuggler for $10, 000.
“Her life was in danger, believe me,” said Mr. Abbott in response to prosecutor Speyer when she challenged his story.
“I bet it was” Speyer replied.
When Speyer asked why he did not discuss these events during his interrogation, Abbott replied he did not think to mention it at the time, and that during his trial, his lawyers had told him that rather than speculating on what might have happened, he should focus on his defense.
Mr. Abbott’s early-parole hearing will end in late October.