(Canadian Press-March 3, 2005)

Toronto — Award-winning writer Roger Caron, one of Canada's most notorious bank robbers, was found not guilty of five counts of robbery Thursday.

“I think he's very pleased and very relieved,” said Toronto defence lawyer Colin Campbell.

“I'm just very, very glad that it's finally over for him.”

In the summer of 2001, 14 banks and a grocery store were robbed in Toronto, Mr. Campbell said. Mr. Caron, 68, who lived near Pembroke, Ont., at the time, was accused of robbing them all.

He was originally charged with 15 counts of robbery, but that number was eventually pared down to five.

The Crown had acknowledged that several witnesses thought the robber was in his 30s.

But Crown attorney Glen Crisp said the accounts of witnesses were consistent in describing the robber as a thin man with a pock-marked face who wore a wig and sunglasses.

One witness described the robber as looking sickly, Mr. Crisp said during trial, noting that Mr. Caron suffers from Parkinson's disease.

“It doesn't matter how sincere a witness is,” Mr. Campbell said in a phone interview.

“If we use that as the marking stick, everybody would be identified and found guilty.”

Witnesses had also described the suspect as standing over six foot. Mr. Caron is about five foot eight.

But Mr. Caron is currently serving a 20-month sentence for an unrelated weapons offence after being arrested in Ottawa in October 2001 with a loaded pistol, wig, change of clothes, knife, surgical gloves and duct tape.

During his trial last year, the judge remarked that Mr. Caron's criminal record was “among the worst.”

Mr. Caron's first conviction for robbery was more than half a century ago.

He won the 1978 Governor-General's Award for non-fiction for his autobiography, Go Boy, and rubbed shoulders with renowned late author Pierre Berton.