Shame in Fallingbrook

Russell Williams, Convicted Murderer

To their neighbours, the family at 545 Wilkie Crescent, just off of Merkley Drive, were just a normal couple. It came as a complete shock to everyone that Russell Williams would become a multiple murderer. In October 2010, Williams was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of two women.

Russell Williams and his wife, Mary-Elizabeth Harriman, moved into a single home at 545 Wilkie in the 1990's. Williams was an air force officer working his way up in rank. As a captain, he was in 412 (Transport) Squadron at CFB Uplands, where he flew the CC144 Challenger jet. His passengers included politicians and the prime minister.

During January to June 2009, Williams took French language training in Gatineau. After completion, on 16 July 2009 he was promoted to full colonel and became commander of CFB Trenton, Canada's largest air base. He was commander of 8 Wing.

In 2006, Williams and Harriman purchased a cottage in Tweed, part way between Ottawa and Trenton. Williams would spend time there while working in Trenton. In December 2009, Williams and Harriman moved out of Fallingbrook, and purchased a house at 473 Edison Avenue in Ottawa. Two months later, he was arrested for murder.

On 24 Nov 2009, Cpl Maire-France Comeau was sexually assaulted and murdered in Brighton, near Trenton. On 28 Jan 2010, Jessica Lloyd was murdered in Belleville. Williams was linked to the murder by tire tracks from his Nissan Pathfinder. A few days later he confessed to both murders, and led police to the bodies. He was also implicated in a number of sexual assaults in the Tweed area. Police are still looking for other unsolved crimes associated with Williams.

Residents of Fallingbrook were horrified to learn that Russell Williams was breaking into houses inside the Charlemagne Boulevard loop during 2008 and 2009. He had an obsession with young girls, and would photograph himself dressed in their clothes. He broke into houses on Cara, Wilkie, Canemore, Caminiti, Simoneau, Apollo, Orford, and Mathieu. This behaviour escalated into sexual assaults and eventually the two vicious murders.

Further information is compiled at the Toronto Star, and on Wikipedia.

A Terrorist in Fallingbrook

Mohammad Momin Khawaja, aged 25, was arrested in March 2004 at his parents' home at 672 Princess Louise Drive in Fallingbrook. In 2009, he as convicted under the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act, and was sentenced in 2010 to life imprisonment. He was found guilty of involvement in a plot to plant fertilizer bombs in the United Kingdom, while working as a software engineer under contract to the Foreign Affairs department in 2004. He became the first person charged and convicted under the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act following the proof that he communicated with British Islamists plotting a bomb attack.

Born to Pakistani immigrants Azra and Mahboob Kawaja, who had moved to Canada in 1967, Khawaja lived in Saudi Arabia with his family from the ages of 9-14 before moving back to Ottawa, where he attended Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School and graduated in January 1998. Following graduation, he entered a 3-year computer program at Algonquin College, and became more religious and began teaching youth at the Cumberland mosque. His April 2001 graduation led to a placement in the Gatineau office of HRDC.

In January 2002, Khawaja took a 3-month trip to stay with his uncle in Pakistan while looking for a potential wife. It was later alleged that this trip had been meant to join the Taliban. Upon returning unsuccessful, he took a job as a contracted software operator for the Department of Foreign Affairs. In summer 2003, the 24-year old Khawaja began visiting paintball and pellet gun ranges with friends, signing in at the desk with pseudonyms. One friend, Younes Lasfar, got Khawaja to store two rifles and some ammunition at his house, and Khawaja complies, storing them under his bed. In July, he is alleged to have attended a four-day training camp in Pakistan's FATA region, along withOmar Khyam.

In October, Khawaja flew to Pakistan, and is alleged to have met with Khyam who gave him a medical kit, invisible ink set, cell phoneSIM cards and cash, which he allegedly brought to Abu Munthir in Pakistan. On October 19, Khawaja sent an email to Mohammed Junaid Babar, stating; “I will start on the remote devices thing right away and will let u know once we have it ready for testing and i find some of the things for testing. Urea, nitro phosphate, anything else we need?”.

During this time, Khawaja also began corresponding with Zeba Khan after reading her articles on the internet, and arranged to once again travel to Pakistan to meet her, going out to dinner with her and Babar. On October 29, Khan announced that she was engaged to Khawaja, though later the couple decide to cancel the marriage but remain friends. Prosecutors allege that the following month, the British-based group and Khawaja began discussing potential explosives to be used in the service of "jihad".

On February 20, 2004, Khawaja travelled to London and was picked up at the airport by two men, including Khayam. Khawaja was arrested on March 29, 2004, while his father was teaching at a university in Saudi Arabia, as part of a month-long sting operation entitled Operation Awaken that saw eight others, all of Pakistani heritage, arrested. Ultimately five were convicted in London courts, and two were acquitted, while Babar agreed to testify against the others in exchange for full immunity for himself. Khawaja's ex-fiancée testified by videolink from Dubai.

The initial two charges against Khawaja were boosted to seven counts, following Babar's telling of events, and a publication ban prevented the media from reporting on details revealed during legal hearings. Represented by attorney Lawrence Greenspon, Khawaja was told to expect a direct indictment leading to a trial beginning in 2006. The trial began on June 23, 2008, heard by Superior Court judge Douglas Rutherford, in front of prosecutor David McKercher. He was charged with helping to develop bomb detonators, possession of explosives, helping to finance terrorist activity, receiving terrorist training and facilitating terrorism. He had pleaded not guilty on all charges, and the case was being heard without a jury. On October 29, 2008, he was found guilty on all charges by Justice Rutherford.