An advocate for the rights of jurors has filed a lawsuit seeking damages from the federal and Ontario governments for post-traumatic stress disorder he developed during a lengthy murder trial. Mark Farrant spent five months as a juror at the 2014 trial in Toronto of Farshad Badakhshan, who was convicted of murdering his 23-year-old girlfriend, Carina Petrache. Badakhshan’s trial heard that he stabbed the university student and then set fire to their place. After the trial, Farrant was diagnosed with PTSD, which spurred him to become an outspoken advocate for the need to provide counselling for jurors hearing horrific cases. In a 2017 interview with The Canadian Press, he said no juror should be forced to suffer in silence.

Source: National Post February 20, 2018 15:56 UTC