Really long road: Cold case killer sentenced to life for 80s Toronto murders – Toronto [Video]

The man who murdered two Toronto women in the 1980s, and was free for almost four decades, has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 21 years.

Joseph George Sutherland sat quietly in a Toronto courtroom as his sentence was handed down by Justice Maureen Forestell on Friday afternoon.

The judge told the court that “given the vulnerability of the victims, the violation of the homes and their bodies and the brutal nature of their killings, both murders fall close to first-degree murder.”

The Crown had suggested Sutherland be ineligible for parole for 22 years, while defence lawyers argued the period should be 18.

She pointed out that the two deaths Sutherland pled guilty to were neither quick nor painless.

In August 1983, Sutherland broke into the home of 45-year-old Susan Tice on Grace Street in Toronto. She was sexually assaulted and stabbed 13 times.

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