After a turbulent 44-day trial involving numerous delays, interruptions and explosive outbursts, in B.C. Supreme Court Friday, Christopher Douglas Cathcart was found guilty of the second degree murder of his intimate partner and an acquaintance in Saanich in 2022.
Cathcart, Stephanie Elk and William “Billie” Bradshaw were all unhoused and tenting outside on Oct. 19, 2022.
Elk and Cathcart were in an intimate relationship.
Justice Jennifer Power found “overwhelming proof” that Cathcart was guilty of Elk and Bradshaw’s second degree murder, using the same knife, minutes and metres apart.
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The family of his former girlfriend who he stabbed to death called the ruling a “relief.”
“We’re getting justice for them and I’m glad. I’m glad for that,” said Judy Elk, Stephanie’s mother. “I’ll make it through. I have her little one to to take of so I have a job to do.”
Judy says Stephanie leaves behind two daughters.
‘Brutally killed’
Bradshaw’s body was found with multiple stab wounds to his chest, where Cathcart and Stephanie had been camping: a portion of unused land near Uptown in Saanich.
Cathcart, with Stephanie, packed up their belongings and fled the scene, before getting into an altercation of their own in suburban Saanich.
Trying to escape the escalating situation, neighbours saw Stephanie running into an unlocked strangers home yelling “help me,” with a man dressed in black carrying a possible knife in pursuit.
Using the same knife he’d just used to kill Bradshaw, Cathcart continued the attack on Stephanie inside, “ferociously” stabbing his girlfriend 21 times in what Power categorized as an “unrelenting assault.”
“He had to bring her down with a big long knife? He can’t do it with his hands?” said Judy. “So, I find her to be strong.”
But it’s what Cathcart did after stabbing Stephanie to death what Power called “as calculated as it is, chilling.”
Cathcart blocked the front door with a chair and locked it, making help from first responders more difficult, placed a separate knife beside Stephanie’s body, before discarding the murder weapon, hiding, then lying to police by suggesting someone else did it.
Cathcart did not testify at trial, but acted as his own legal representation to negative results.
Power concluded during trial that he was intentionally or recklessly derailing the trial to put an end to his case.
At trial, Power said Cathcart had many explosive outbursts “that are difficult to explain.”
“They included profanity, accusations that everyone at trial were conspiring against him to fabricate or suppress evidence, and prevent him from having a fair trial,” said Power.
Power went on to say if anything was compromised, it was a result of Cathcart’s own actions. Because of his outbursts, Cathcart was removed from the courtroom for the safety of everyone else.
Cathcart indicated Friday that he’d be looking into appealing the double second degree murder charges.
While discussing sentencing, Cathcart waived his right to have a Gladue report that takes into account the systemic and background factors of Indigenous offenders that led the person into the justice system (like the impact of colonization, residential schools, intergenerational trauma and poverty).
If the report finds strong links to systemic factors, it often leads to lower sentences for offenders.
Instead, Cathcart told the judge “let’s get on with it.”
A second degree murder charge comes with a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no eligibility for parole somewhere between 10-25 years.
Cathcart’s sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 14 and 15.
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