Ex-husband of woman who tried to hire hit man to kill him says courts were wrong

ANGUS, Ont. – The ex-husband of a woman who tried to have him killed because she said he was abusive — a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court — says the courts got it wrong.

Michael Ryan tells The Canadian Press in an interview that he never hit his wife, put a gun to her head or threatened to kill her, as she asserted in court.

At her original trial in Nova Scotia, Nicole Ryan, who tried to hire a hit man to kill her spouse, was acquitted of counselling to commit murder after she used the defence of duress.

The Supreme Court overturned that decision, but nonetheless granted a stay of her proceedings, essentially leaving her a free woman.

The top court in its decision referred to Michael Ryan’s “reign of terror” over his then-wife.

Ryan says he was never called to testify at her original trial to refute the allegations of abuse, so he says the judge didn’t have all the facts.