Ex-judge charged with wife's murder

A RETIRED Quebec judge has been arrested and charged with the murder of his wife, who was partially paralysed after suffering with a stroke, officials said today.

Judge Jacques Delisle sat on the Quebec appeal's court bench until 2000.

Now 75 years old, he was arrested and then charged yesterday with murder and possession of an illegal weapon, Martine Berube, spokeswoman for the director of prosecutions, said.

She did not specify what type of weapon he was used in the killing. The wife's death at the age of 71, on November 12, 2009, had originally been declared a suicide.

The case is believed to be the first in Canadian history in which a high-ranking magistrate has been accused of a serious crime such as murder.

A former president of the Quebec defence attorneys association, Renald Beaudry, told public broadcaster Radio-Canada the murder could be found to be an act of compassion.

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