:: Businessman Pleads Guilty To Killing Elderly Gay Man

kenno · Administrator

Businessman Pleads Guilty To Killing Elderly Gay Man
Newscenter Staff

Posted: September 6, 2007 - 5:00 pm ET

(Toronto, Ontario) A 45-year old Toronto-area man has been sentenced to life in prison with no hope of parole for 17 years for the brutal stabbing of a 72-year old pensioner he met on an Internet gay chat line.

David Reid had pleaded guilty to killing Harley Walker last year in Walker's downtown Toronto home. Walker's badly decomposed body were found earlier this year in a shallow grave near a road east of the city. (story)

Last October police were called to Walker's home in Toronto's Cabbagetown area by neighbors who had not seen Walker for several days.

Inside the house there was no sign of Walker but police found what they described as the indication of a violent struggle, including a considerable amount of blood.

Investigators also found the Walker's bank account had been cleaned out and other assets had been cashed in.

A check of Walker's computer showed he had met a man in a popular gay chat site and had arranged to meet at Walker's home.

Based on information obtained by checking with the internet provider of the man Walker had arranged to meet police issued an arrest warrant for David Kenton Reid on a charge of aggravated assault in late October. Shortly after that his vehicle was found crashed in Meaford, a small community more than 100 miles northwest of Toronto.

Reid was arrested after eluding police for a week. Married and the father of a young child, Reid was charged with first degree murder.

In sentencing Reid, judge David Watt said it was "unexplained and inexplicable" why a man like Reid, who had held senior positions in several major companies, was well-educated and had no criminal record could resort to murder.

Police believe the case was a kidnapping-extortion plot gone wrong. They believe Reid, who at the time of the killing was unemployed, used the gay Web site to find vulnerable older gay men to con.

Walker, originally from England, had worked for more than 30 years as a technician at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Neighbors say he was well liked and was often seen gardening at the front of his home.