Ivan Henry with his daughters after his acquittal

In a decision released Wednesday, the British Columbia Court of Appeal overturned Ivan Henry’s 1982 sexual assault convictions and acquitted him of all charges. Mr. Henry spent nearly 27 years in prison for crimes he did not commit. The Crown case was based solely on the complainants’ testimony after many of them picked him out of this lineup:

Although the perpetrator’s bodily fluids were found and collected from the crime scenes, no physical evidence was tendered at trial to link Mr. Henry to the offences. Although Mr. Henry immediately started filing a barrage of more than 50 applications seeking his release, the physical evidence was lost or destroyed in the interim and is no longer available for DNA testing.