By Laura Stone
Canwest News Service
February 11, 2010
NAPANEE, Ont. — Five days ago, he was the highest-ranking officer at eastern Ontario's CFB Trenton, in charge of some 3,500 personnel and a pillar in that military community. Now, Col. Russell Williams calls home the compact barbed-wire complex at the Quinte Detention Centre, some 40 kilometres away in Napanee, Ont.
Williams is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and sexual assault. His next court appearance is set for Feb. 18 in Belleville, Ont.
On Thursday, past Quinte's expansive fencing and dried yellow grass, Williams was with the chaplain and declined an interview request.
"He's not interested in an interview," said Larry Shorts, the deputy superintendent of the institution.
The Quinte remand centre houses a wide range of offenders, in minimum-security dorms and maximum-security cells shared by two or three inmates. Offenders can stay there for years as they await trial.
This is Williams' new reality since he was charged Monday with the murders of Jessica Lloyd, 27, of Belleville, Ont., and Marie-France Comeau, 37, a corporal on the base found murdered at her home in Brighton, Ont.
Williams was also charged with two counts of sexual assault related to home invasions in Tweed, Ont., where he has a cottage.
He and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman, also have a new house in Ottawa's Westboro neighbourhood. Police conducted a search there on Thursday.
Little is known of Williams' personal life before his arrest. He has been alternately described as pleasant, professional, standoffish, quiet, and in one case, brilliant, by people who have met or worked with him.
Lawrence Ramsey, the owner of the Tweedsmuir Bar and Grill, where Lloyd would frequently watch live country music bands, said: "I've lived here all my life and I've never seen the guy."
Former inmates from Quinte say a rough time lies ahead for the soldier.
"Somebody's going to pound him," said one man, who was in custody a short while ago for driving offences, and was back at the institution to pick up his compact plastic bag of possessions.
"You don't want to say anything to the guards, or they'll pound you even harder."
Another former inmate, who also declined to give his name, said Williams would most likely be placed in protective custody.
Even in prison, he explained, there is a moral code.
Charges of murder and sexual assaults against women are not tolerated there any more than they are in the real world.
"It's going to be horrible," said the second man as he smoked a cigarette out of his car window.
"He's accused of killing two women. He won't be accepted . . . the inmates already know who he is (from the media) and they won't want him on the range (cellblock)," he said.
"There's breaking the law, and then there's doing the wrong thing."
He said men like Williams without criminal records are referred to in prison as "Straight Johns."
If Williams indeed is placed in protective custody away from the general population, he will be locked in his cell for up to 23 hours a day, the men said, with one hour a day to shower and use the phone.
He is afforded the same rights as other inmates, including the use of chaplaincy services, said the second man.
"Other than that, he's going to be one bored old man," he said.
Prison authorities were not talking about Williams.
"We don't discuss any information about the conditions of his custody," said Stuart McGetrick, spokesman for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
While Williams' alleged fall from grace has been deemed an individual — and not a military — matter, there is fear it could provoke a backlash against the military.
On Wednesday, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walter Natynczyk addressed some 500 officers at CFB Trenton, telling them to stand tall and proud in the face of allegations around their commander.
In Trenton, stories about anti-military incidents are beginning to unfold.
At the aptly-titled Rumours bar, a military hangout, owner and former military pilot Pierre Bouchard said he's heard of soldiers being yelled at or spit on in public.
One woman in the grocery store allegedly told a female soldier, "You should be ashamed of yourself."
"Today, some young officer got spit on in uniform," Bouchard said.
While he, like most others in and around Trenton, said he was shocked and dismayed by the allegations against Williams, he hoped it wouldn't affect military morale.
"This town survives because of the base," said Bouchard.
"I hate to see people become ashamed of their uniform."
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
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