Suspect in Pickton prison attack has lengthy criminal history, sentenced for armed robbery
The man suspected of attacking B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton at a maximum-security prison has a long history of criminal offences dating back decades.
Martin “Spike” Charest, 51, has not yet been charged with what Correctional Service Canada called a “major assault,” which left Pickton hospitalized in a coma.
But sources confirmed the longtime prisoner is the suspect under investigation.
Pickton was brutally assaulted on May 19, at about 5:15 p.m., in a specialized unit for at-risk inmates in Quebec’s Port-cartier maximum security prison.
During the surprise attack, a broken broom handle was shoved into his head.
He was flown to a hospital in the Quebec capital, 600 kilometres from the prison.
The Correctional Service Canada has not provided any information on his medical condition, but Postmedia has learned that he remains in critical, but stable, condition.
Pickton, 74, is serving a life sentence after a jury convicted him in 2007 of killing Georgina Papin, Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Ann Wolfe and Marnie Frey. In all, DNA from 33 women was found on his Port Coquitlam farm. Pickton once bragged to an undercover officer that he killed 49 women.
In 2022, Charest was serving time at the Donnacona Institution, a maximum-security penitentiary near Quebec City, when he was charged with more than a dozen counts of uttering threats to cause bodily harm or the death of a person. On May 22, 2022, he pleaded guilty to all 13 of the counts he faced and was sentenced to a 36-month prison term.
In 2014, Charest was sentenced to a 48-month prison term for uttering threats while he was serving time at Port-cartier.
He was at Port-cartier at the time because, in 2007, he pleaded guilty to three counts of armed robbery and was sentenced to an eight-year prison term.
The motive for his attack on Pickton is unknown. But one source told Postmedia that Pickton was a target because of the brutality of his crimes against women.
Catherine Latimer, the executive director of the John Howard Society, said there should be an independent investigation into how the attacker got access to Pickton in the secure unit.
If Charest had a history of assaulting other inmates “why would they place him with someone who would be particularly vulnerable to assault because of the charges and convictions that he had?” Latimer asked.
She noted that federal Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc said Tuesday that there would be an internal investigation into the attack.
“But I think given the information that came out last week by the correctional investigator, that prison violence was increasing across the board, that there really should … be a broader, more independent investigation into prison violence,” Latimer said. “Internal investigations, they don’t really have as much credibility as one would hope.”