Victoria Stafford
Kevin Rafferty is on trial for for the kidnapping, sexual assault and first-degree murder of eight-year-old, Victoria Stafford. Rafferty's accomplice, Terri-Lynne McClintic, has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and is currently serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years. On April 8, 2009, Tori was walking home from school alone for the first time ever. McClintic lured the little girl to a vehicle where Rafferty was waiting. With little Tori in the car, they stopped at a local hardware store where McClintic bought the garbage bags in which they would wrap her body and the hammer they would use to kill her. They continued on to a secluded place where Rafferty sexually assaulted her while little Tori begged McClintic to make him stop. The little girl was then kicked and stomped on hard enough that her liver was lacerated and several ribs were broken. While she continued to fight for her life, one of the garbage bags was wrapped around her head before she was killed by repeated blows to the head from the claw hammer. The young girl's body was then wrapped in more of the garbage bags, tossed on a rock pile, and covered. She would not be found until July 19, 2009.
Originally McClintic said it was Rafferty who delivered the fatal blows but she changed her story and confessed to having been the one that stomped on and kicked Tori and then hit her repeatedly on the head with the hammer. In my opinion it doesn't really matter who delivered the fatal blow. They both clearly planned the abduction and murder. Rafferty did not purchase the garbage bags and hammer but he drove the vehicle to the store and waited outside while McClintic bought them. He knew what she had purchased and what they were going to use them for. Details of what they did to Tori once they got her to the secluded area are horrific and the only questions left are exactly which one of them commit each of the horrendous offenses. I say as far as the punishment they should get, it does not matter. They deserve to spend the rest of their days behind bars. McClintic is already in prison for life and at the end of this trial, I hope Rafferty will be as well. Unfortunately, in Canada a life sentence does not actually mean life. It means that these despicable offenders have a chance at parole after 25 years! I used to try to convince myself that if people convicted of crimes that warranted a life sentence could be rehabilitated and become productive members of society, that perhaps they should be allowed back on the streets. I no longer think that. I do not care if they become Mother Theresa, they do not deserve a second chance at anything. Tori's abduction and subsequent murder has affected people all over the world in one way or another. Tori's brother will now grow up without his little sister, her parents without their little girl. They do not get a second chance of having her in their lives. Kevin Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic decided that would never happen. Most significant in my reasoning that Kevin Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic do not deserve a second chance at life is because they decided on April 8, 2009 that Tori's life was over. There is no option for little Victoria Stafford to have a second chance at life and in my opinion, there should be no option for either of them.
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