A former steelworker who has been tried four times in the killing of a 23-year-old Hamilton nursing assistant in Stoney Creek has lost the appeal of his latest conviction.

Robert Badgerow’s conviction for the 1981 murder of Diane Werendowicz will stand. The decision came down Wednesday morning from the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

The defendant’s lawyer, Ingrid Grant, told Global News Radio that Badgerow had been out on bail pending appeal before turning himself in to the Millhaven maximum-security prison on Tuesday evening.

Grant confirmed that this marks the end of Badgerow’s appeal rights, saying that his only recourse going forward would be a “leave to appeal with the Supreme Court of Canada.” Grant did not disclose whether Badgerow will pursuit that option.

It was 17 years before Badgerow was arrested, tried and convicted for Werendowicz’s murder.

On the night of the murder, Werendowicz left a bar alone just before midnight, intending to walk home. Her body would later be found lying in a creek in a nearby ravine, partly covered with a tire.

Forensic investigators revealed that Werendowicz had been sexually assaulted and strangled, and Badgerow was convicted of the first-degree murder of Werendowicz.

That decision was later overturned on appeal, which led to a second and even a third trial, both of which ended in hung juries.

Before Badgerow’s fourth trial, the accused was granted a stay of proceedings, which was revoked by the appeals court in 2014.

In the 2016 trial, a 911 call that had been excluded from previous court proceedings would be key in a jury decision convicting Badgerow of first-degree murder.

In court documents from the trial, the Crown asserted that details from the anonymous call made to Hamilton police about the murder were “accurate” and “that the caller’s knowledge of the facts showed that he was involved in the homicide.”

The call would later be traced back to a phone booth just outside a mill where Badgerow worked.

The latest appeal saw lawyers for the accused argue that the judge made instructional errors to jurors “relating to the evidence tracing the 911 call” and “failed to mention the significant evidence casting doubt on the trace’s accuracy.”

However, the court would rule against the appeal, stating: “Jury instructions are not inadequate or unfair because they do not include everything that could properly have been said about certain evidence or certain arguments advanced in respect of that evidence.”

With time already served, Badgerow has 14 years left on his automatic 25-year sentence before being eligible for parole.

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