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Defence lawyer requests break as blood-soaked clothing shown to courtroom

Vancouver Island father on trial for killing daughters Chloe, 6, and Aubrey, 4
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The ongoing double murder trial for Oak Bay father Andrew Berry is live streamed from Vancouver to a court room in the Provincial Court of B.C. in Victoria. (Nina Grossman/News Staff) The ongoing double murder trial for Oak Bay father Andrew Berry is live streamed from Vancouver to a court room in the Provincial Court of B.C. in Victoria. (Nina Grossman/News Staff)

WARNING: This story contains disturbing details about a double murder trial.

Andrew Berry’s lawyer called for a break as a tiny blood-soaked pajama shirt was shown to the courtroom Wednesday during the Greater Victoria father’s double murder trial in Vancouver.

Berry had reportedly broken into tears before his lawyer called for the break, adjourning court early at about 12:15 p.m.

Berry, 45, is on trial the murder of his daughters, Chloe, 6, and Aubrey, 4, in his Oak Bay apartment on Christmas Day, 2017.

READ ALSO: Trial begins for Oak Bay father charged in Christmas Day deaths of two daughters

READ ALSO: Oak Bay Sgt. struggles through emotional testimony in double murder trial

On Wednesday, Crown questioned Saanich detective Corrie Bland, who acted as exhibit officer during the investigation and was one of the officers responsible for collecting and categorizing evidence taken from the scene.

Bland showed a number of exhibits to the courtroom, including clothing taken from the bathroom where Andrew Berry was found by first responders – a pair of “crunchy” and “blood-stained” jeans and a long-sleeved shirt discovered next to the bathtub Berry found in with lacerations to his chest and neck.

Bland presented a black-handled knife found on the floor near Aubrey Berry’s bed.

She was asked to show the court Chloe Berry’s small, long-sleeved, blood-soaked pajama shirt, so thoroughly stained that only a small, dry patch revealed the shirt’s original light pink colour. Bland described puncture holes all over the shirt, in “the front, the back area and on the sides.”

She also showed the courtroom Aubrey Berry’s long-sleeved pajama shirt, which was “purple with white owls” but again, so dark with blood that the colour was almost impossible to distinguish. Bland described puncture holes on the arms, the wrist, the front and the back of the shirt.

“There is multiple… some here…some there,” she said, gesturing to different parts of the tiny shirt. “There’s not much of the shirt that doesn’t have a mark on it.”

The court saw a bloodstained pair of pink fairy wings from one of the girl’s bedrooms.

Bland was also asked to read out one of three notes located on a cluttered table in the apartment’s kitchen.

“Enjoy the bunny crackers from Chloe and Aubrey, Andy - Merry Christmas,’” it read.

READ ALSO: Juror dismissed from Andrew Berry double murder trial

READ ALSO: Court hears paramedic feared for safety of first responders at Oak Bay murder scene



nina.grossman@blackpress.ca

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