The Canadian businessman at the centre of a bizarre story of murder, the embezzlement of millions of dollars and a life on the run with his daughter is being returned to Canada, CFTO-TV reported Tuesday.
In 1998, Albert Walker was jailed for life in Britain for the murder of Ronald Platt, 51, the man whose identify he stole.
The CTV affiliate reported late Tuesday that Mr. Walker is in poor health and is to return to Toronto under high security later this week, possibly Thursday night, accompanied by a nurse.
A Foreign Affairs spokesman said Mr. Walker is being transferred to a Canadian jail to serve the remainder of his sentence.
"Mr. Walker has been approved for a transfer to Canada under the Transfer of Offenders Act," said Andrew Hannan, a spokesman with Foreign Affairs Canada.
He could not confirm any further details.
Mr. Walker, an admitted thief, has said in the past that he wants to transfer to a Canadian prison.
However, once in Canada, the Paris, Ont., man could also face 37 charges of theft and fraud that arose after he left southwestern Ontario in 1990 with millions of dollars of clients' money missing.
By 2000, bankruptcy trustees had recovered about $1-million, but authorities aren't really sure how much the financial adviser stole and how much he lost in failed business ventures.
Mr. Walker admitted at his trial in England that he stole from clients, but he has never revealed how much remains hidden away. His Toronto lawyer at the time, Scott Fenton, had said he believed it was in the order of $500,000.
Mr. Walker fled Canada with his then 15-year old daughter, Sheena, and the pair spent six years on the run, posing as husband and wife.
Sheena Walker had two daughters during that period. The identity of the girls' father has never been revealed.
Mr. Walker has never admitted killing the hapless Mr. Platt. But the Crown persuaded a jury that Mr. Walker took Mr. Platt out on his sailboat in the summer of 1996, hit him over the head with an anchor and, after securing the anchor to his belt, pushed the unconscious man overboard.
Mr. Platt's body surfaced days later in a trawlerman's net. Clever detective work - aided by the fact that the dead man's prized Rolex was still on Mr. Platt's wrist - led police to Mr. Walker.