False medical records 'pulled the rug out' from under assault suspect's defence

A CT scan showing he’d broken an eye socket and his nose was crucial to Kenneth Paul Burgar’s defence against a charge of aggravated assault.

Those injuries, the Metro Vancouver man argued, were proof that he’d been sucker punched, and was acting in self-defence when he retaliated.

There was only one problem — the CT scan wasn’t Burgar’s. It belonged to someone else, and had been added to Burgar’s file by mistake when he requested his medical records.

The error was only discovered after Burgar had closed his case and a B.C. Supreme Court jury was preparing to consider the evidence,