As a convicted murderer tried to persuade a Toronto jury over the last two weeks that she should get an earlier parole date, one notably absent individual loomed large over the proceedings: Ashleigh Pechaluk.

Nicola Puddicombe insisted while testifying at her “faint-hope” hearing last week that it was her girlfriend, Pechaluk, who bludgeoned Puddicombe’s long-time boyfriend Dennis Hoy to death with the blunt end of an axe on Oct. 27, 2006. Puddicombe claimed she simply gave her the go-ahead, saying Pechaluk knew that Hoy, a 36-year-old GO Transit special constable, had been abusive.

But it was Puddicombe who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2009 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance at parole for 25 years. Pechaluk was acquitted in a separate trial, where the jury did

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