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Serial killer Bruce McArthur targeted vulnerable victims of the LGBTQ community for brutal homicides that he believed would be hard to uncover, his sentencing hearing was told.

Crown attorney Michael Cantlon said most of the dead men had “traits that made victimization more likely or harder to detect.

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“Some victims were forced to live parts of their life in secret because of their orientation. Some lacked stable housing,” said Cantlon.

Murdered in Janurary, 2016, Kirushna Kanagaratnam, 37 — one of McArthur’s eight victims — was facing deportation as a failed refugee claimant from Sri Lanka who came to Canada after his brother was killed in his homeland. He was supposed to fly home in September, 2015, after he lost his refugee bid in April 2015.

“His disappearance was never reported to police by anyone who knew him, likely because they assumed he was in hiding to avoid deportation,” said Cantlon.