VANCOUVER — The daughter of a wrongfully convicted British Columbia man says she never believed her father was guilty of the sexual assaults that sent him to prison for 27 years.
Tanya Olivares (OH'-liv-AIR'-eez) told a B.C. Supreme Court hearing considering compensation for Ivan Henry that she was just nine years old when her father was arrested in 1982.
Henry was acquitted in 2010 following a protracted effort on the part of his two daughters to have his case reviewed.
Olivares paints a troubling picture of an anxious childhood following her father's imprisonment, involving a drug-addicted mother and a year-long stint in foster care.
She says she remembers her father as supportive and caring, but adds that after he was taken away she would tell friends he had died in order to avoid questions about his whereabouts.
Henry is suing the province, the federal government and the City of Vancouver for damages.