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Appeal for Oak Bay father who killed daughters cites 11 errors during trial

Andrew Berry was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of Aubrey, 4, and Chloe, 6
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Andrew Berry is appealing his conviction for his daughters’ murders. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Felicity Don)

Immediately after Andrew Berry was sentenced to life in prison Dec. 19, he appealed the conviction and the sentence, asking the courts for a new trial and a reduced period of parole ineligibility.

Berry was sentenced to 22 years in prison before being eligible for parole for the murders of his children, Chloe, 6, and Aubrey, 4, who were found stabbed to death in their beds in their home on Christmas Day in 2017.

Page one of Andrew Berry's notice of appeal for both counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of his two daughters, Aubrey and Chloe. (Kendra Crighton/News Staff)

Berry has maintained his innocence throughout court proceedings, testifying that he had gambling debts, and was attacked in his apartment the night the girls were murdered.

RELATED: VIDEO: Oak Bay father who killed daughters eligible for parole after 22 years

Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper called Berry’s alternate tale of owing money to a loan shark “completely fabricated” and “self-serving.”

The notice of appeal, filed by Berry’s lawyer Kevin McCullough, lays out 11 instances they say the trial judge erred in determining the sentence and conviction. The first point on the notice states the trial judge erred in admitting the statements Berry “allegedly made to first responders” at the crime scene.

RELATED: Adopted grandmother to murdered Oak Bay girls shares her grief

On Monday Gropper laid out the facts of the case that she found to have been proven beyond reasonable doubt and on which Berry would be sentenced. She found that when first responders first attended the murder scene at Berry’s apartment on Beach Drive, he uttered the words “kill me” and “leave me alone.” During the almost six month trial, paramedic Hayley Blackmore testified she heard Berry utter the word “kill” in a deadpan voice and asked all the paramedics in the suite to leave.

“I wasn’t sure if he said, ‘kill me’ or ‘I’m going to kill you’…” she told the courts.

Page two of Andrew Berry's notice of appeal. (Kendra Crighton/News Staff)

The notice also states the trial judge erred “admitting subsequent statements” of Berry at the hospital both before and after he was detained under the Mental Health Act, along with permitting the Crown to “lead evidence from multiple witnesses” about Berry’s failure to ask about his dead children.

Some of the other reasons outlined on the notice of appeal include the failure to explain the distinction between murder and manslaughter and imposing a period of parole that was “excessive and unfit.”

To read more about this case visit oakbaynews.com/tag/andrew-berry.

-With files from Nina Grossman



kendra.crighton@blackpress.ca

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