Bruce McArthur, Toronto's Gay Village Serial Killer, Sentenced To Life In Prison

McArthur has pleaded guilty to eight serial murders in Toronto, a lot of them with sexual elements.

Parole eligibility was the only question for McMahon to settle as first-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence, and the judge said McArthur's age and guilty plea were factors in his decision.

Det. David Dickinson said that no deal or offer was made to McArthur by police to induce him to plead guilty to eight counts of first degree murder.

The Crown was asking for a life sentence with no chance of parole for 50 years.

The 67-year-old has been given eight concurrent life sentences.

Even as he decried Bruce McArthur's record of barbarous murders as "pure evil", an Ontario judge on Friday sentenced the serial killer who menaced Toronto's gay village for most of this decade to the lightest penalty available to him by law: life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

McArthur's confirmed victims, whom he murdered between 2010 and 2017, are Selim Esen, Andrew Kinsman, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Soroush Mahmudi, Kirushna Kan withagaratnam, and Abdulbasir Faizi. Families and friends of the respective men were not given the closure that they deserved in a timely manner.

Many in the community say they were convinced a serial killer was on the loose, an idea the police dismissed about a month before McArthur was caught.

Remains of seven of the men were found in garden planters in a Toronto home where McArthur had worked as a landscape gardener.

"The accused has saved the family, friends, and community at large from enduring a graphic public trial that would have been a nightmare for everyone", he said.

After killing each of the men, McMahon said, McArthur subjected them to "the greatest post-mortem indignity": cutting their bodies into pieces and burying their remains in plant pots or underground.

McArthur lured men in Toronto's Gay Village, and later staged photos with some of the corpses, where he would dress them up in fur coats and put cigars in their mouths.

"Although Mr. McArthur has taken responsibility by pleading guilty, there has been no evidence I can see of remorse", said Justice John McMahon.

At a news conference on Friday afternoon, Toronto Police Insp.

Two pieces of evidence finally connected McArthur to the killings when police renewed their investigation in August 2017. He was naked, tied to a bed and had a bag over his head.

The victims fit a pattern: Most were of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent and lived on the margins of Canadian society.

"Why did the police seemingly not take the concerns of the LGBTQ community more seriously?" the paper asked.

On Monday, prosecutor Michael Cantlon warned those in the courtroom that disturbing details of the crimes would be discussed, and those in attendance should "think carefully about your need to be here". Police said he was likely killed sometime between September and December 2015.

McMahon noted how all the friends and families had been victimized twice - searching fruitlessly for their loved ones when they went missing, only to learn they'd been murdered.

Many communities had also suffered from McArthur's crimes, he said, including the immigrant and refugee communities, which McArthur disproportionately targeted.