Killer Robert Pickton on life support after prison attack: police

Police in Quebec say convicted B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton is in a medically induced coma and on life support, four days after he was attacked by another inmate in prison.

Sources told Radio-Canada on Tuesday that Pickton, 74, was clinging to life following what Correctional Service Canada (CSC) confirmed was a "major assault" on Sunday at the maximum-security Port-Cartier Institution, about 450 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.

The killer is still in critical condition, Sûreté du Québec (SQ) spokesperson Hughes Beaulieu confirmed with CBC News on Thursday morning.

"The victim has been placed into an artificial coma in order to see whether he can be stabilized," Beaulieu said, speaking in French, on Thursday morning.

"It's expected, maybe in a few days, that doctors will try to wake him up and re-evaluate his condition then."

Beaulieu declined to comment further on Pickton's injuries or plans for his medical care.

"That's not up to the police," he said. "These are medical decisions over which I have no say, so I can't comment on them."

CSC said the assailant has been identified and "appropriate actions" have been taken. 

Beaulieu said Thursday the SQ has not yet spoken to the 51-year-old man believed to be responsible as it investigates the attack, but he remains in isolation.

Canada's Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc confirmed a probe into the circumstances of the attack earlier this week.

Pickton was charged with the murders of 26 women and in 2007 was convicted of the second-degree murder of six women who had disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

They were Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Marnie Frey, Georgina Papin and Brenda Wolfe.

In total, the remains or DNA of 33 women, many of whom were Indigenous, were found at Pickton's pig farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C., about 25 kilometres east of downtown Vancouver.

Chief Marilyn Slett with the Heiltsuk Tribal Council in Bella Bella, B.C., said earlier this week that discussion about Pickton's assault has revived painful memories for the families of the victims and Indigenous people.

The sister of one of Pickton's victims told CBC News that she felt relieved and happy when she heard that the serial killer had been attacked in prison.

"I said, 'Good for him, he deserved it,'" Tammy Lynn Papin, sister of Georgina Papin, said on Tuesday. "I don't wish any harm on anybody but — karma, you know?"