Killer set off several red flags inquest is told

Dr. Peter Jaffe, a leading criminal psychologist who has made his career out of understanding the basis of domestic abuse, did not mince words on June 8 at the inquest looking into the cause of the deadly 2015 triple murder of three Ottawa Valley women.

While providing testimony, he described Basil Borutski, the man found guilty in the deaths of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam nearly seven years ago, “a domestic violence terrorist.” He appeared via video link at the Chief Coroner’s Office inquest into the September 22, 2015 murders of the women.

Jaffe, who has close to 30 years of expertise in this field, expressed frustration at the structure of the system designed to help and protect these vulnerable women due to its limitations.

“He was supposed to have a lifetime ban on firearms, yet he had access to a shotgun,” Jaffe said. “He ignored court ordered counselling and refused to wear electronic monitoring devices and there were no consequences for his actions. For more than 20 years he sent up all kinds of red flags.”

He said in light of modern day technology, police services should be adapting and use modern services to find alternate ways to protect victims of domestic abuse. He said it is mix of old and new approaches to dealing with domestic abuse, especially in a rural setting.

“If a woman living in a rural and remote setting in Renfrew County goes on a dating site like Plenty of Fish or others she is attracted by an ad from a man who enjoys the outdoors and is very handy at fixing things,” he said. “Then the ad says had some trouble with the law and bad luck in relationships and not my fault, it should raise red flags for the woman.”

Jaffe said technology should be set up if that a woman comes into a police station to make inquiries about a man, then the police should be able to tell her “to stay as far away from him as possible.”

One of the biggest gaps is the legal system, he said, is government bureaucracies often work in “silos” and in normal circumstances it is an inconvenience. But having the legal system not communicating with those on the social services side can end in deadly results.

Jaffe said if an early intervention with Borutski may have made a difference, but that is just guessing. He outlined his involvement with the justice system from the age of 20.

“We are going back almost 40 years of violent behaviour towards his female partners and even as a young man he showed total disregard for the law and serving time in jail really had no effect on him,” Jaffe said. “The possibility of successful intervention would have needed to happen when he was a young man.”

Police reports had already tagged Borutski as a “high risk” by 2013, two years before the murders, Jaffe's review found. 

“By the spring of 2015, there seemed to be agreement among the reports from probation, the police, and the crown that the perpetrator posed a serious risk to one of the victims as well as to any future intimate partners,” said Jaffe. 

Jaffe will return on the morning of day four of the inquest to complete his presentation.