Ontario court denies appeal by killer of Barrie’s Alexandra Flanagan

The man convicted of killing Barrie’s Alexandra Flanagan won’t be getting out of jail anytime soon.

Earlier this summer, Andrew Keene appealed both his conviction and his sentence, based on the fact a police sting known as a Mr. Big operation was used to find him guilty.

But in Ontario Court of Appeal , released Oct. 8, he concludes the trial judge made the right call in sentencing Keene to life in prison with no eligibility of parole for 17 years.

Keene was sentenced July 2, 2015, after confessing to the murder and dismemberment of Flanagan, who had gone missing in July 2007.

Keene’s lawyer said the the only reason Keene confessed to the crime is because he believed he was a liability for the Mr. Big criminal organization.

Strathy said the question is “whether the police induced a confession from him by using coercion, threats of coercion, or conduct approximating coercion to overcome his will,” he wrote in his report.

He noted there was no physical violence or threat of physical violence against Keene.

“Ultimately, (Keene) was carrying a terrible burden and felt the police closing in on him. He willingly and gratefully accepted Mr. Big’s offer of assistance, not because he was pressured or coerced into doing so, or because he thought he would be ‘put in a hole’ if he did not.”

Strathy dismissed the conviction appeal based on that information.

As for the parole ineligibility period, Strathy said he should only “interfere with a sentence if it is demonstrably unfit, or if it reflects an error in principle.”

The length of a sentence is to denounce unlawful conduct and deter others from similar conduct, he wrote.

“The dismemberment of Ms. Flanagan’s body and the disposal of her remains about Barrie, coupled with the victim impact statements from her family (parents, sisters and aunt), speak to the horrific nature of the appellant’s crimes,” Strathy wrote. “The circumstances of Ms. Flanagan’s murder and the events after it warrant a period of parole ineligibility at the upper end of the range.”

Correction — Oct. 13, 2020: This article has been edited from a previous version that misstated Justice Strathy’s name.