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'I've Lost My Son,' Says Mother of Gill's Killer

A P Kamath in Surrey, British Columbia

Nirmal Singh Gill came to Canada from Amritsar like millions of other immigrants hoping for a better life. And so did Christina Miloszewski, who came as a political refugee from Poland in 1968 because of the problems her politically-active husband Adam was facing in Warsaw.

This week as Miloszewski broke down in a court here, pleading for a lenient sentence to her son Daniel for the murder of 65-year-old Gill, she talked about how her own family has been shattered, and how she has been hiding the shameful news from her family in Poland.

She said she would offer her own life if Gill could be restored to his family. Her son, who along with four other white young men, has confessed to the murder, is not unrepentant, she said.

Christina Miloszewski told Judge William Stewart she has lost her son and the Gill family has lost their father.

"It's sad. It's tragic," she said. "I forgive my son but I never forget what he did. I feel so sorry... for the Gill family."

The crown prosecutors, painting a picture of unrepentant racist murderers is asking for life sentence for all the five. John Conroy, lawyer for Miloszewski pleading that his client was a "soldier", is urging the court for a four to eight year sentence.

Miloszewski, 22, has admitted to repeatedly kicking Gill in the head on January 4 morning last year. Gill died a few yards from the temple, clutching his bracelet. For a few weeks authorities wondered if his murder was connected to the on-going clashes between moderates and fundamentalists in running the British Columbia gurdwaras.

But the investigators, working on tips and other evidence, rounded up Miloszewski and four other young men, all members of White Power, a Nazi hate group, especially aimed against immigrants.

The police have also produced videotapes in which the five boast to an undercover police officer looking for a contract killer that they enjoyed beating up people. Miloszewski reportedly officers they needed money to start "a racial holy war" and that he wanted to kill thousands, if not millions.

Trying to soften the impact of such evidence, Christina Miloszewski said her son would apologize to Gill's family. She asserted that he was brought up to be a tolerant person.

She also presented a picture of her son as a schoolboy in Vancouver and Surrey who was continually bullied by the Indian-American kids. He was so scared to go to school, his father Adam had to accompany him to the class many times, she said.

But the family never imagined that he would go to the extent of getting involved in a vicious attack on another person, she said. Her son's behavior began changing in 1996 after he graduated from high school and began hanging out with white supremacist groups, she said.

Nathan LeBlanc, Robert Kluch, Radoslaw Synderek and Lee Nikkel also have pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the murder. Prosecutors have argued that the men have not shown genuine remorse. Earlier, the court was told of a letter LeBlanc wrote, congratulating a white man Texan driver who had dragged an African American to his death. The five have grown their hair now hoping to create a wholesome image of themselves, the prosecutors said.

After the father Adam Miloszewski also apologized to the court and the Sikh community for the act of her son, John Conroy, the attorney for the family, told reporters:

"My client is ashamed of what he did, he is ashamed of what he said, he is ashamed of what he became involved in."

Conroy also said that his client "wants to put this behind him and sever any involvement with sort of thing ever in the future."

EARLIER REPORT:
Prosecutor Demands Killer Skinheads Get No Mercy

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