Yellowknife (July 07/03) - Roger Warren has finally admitted he is guilty of making and setting the bomb that killed nine miners at Giant Mine in 1992 during the course of a bitter strike.

Roger Warren admitted to a psychiatrist that he planted the bomb that ended the lives of nine Giant miners in 1992. - NNSL file photo

According to court files, Warren made the admission to Michael Stanbrook, a psychologist at Manitoba's Stony Mountain Institution on March 19, 2003.

In the report, Warren admitted to rigging an underground railroad car with homemade explosives, which he expected to be triggered by an ore car. He rigged it so it would not go off on a manned car, according to the report.

Warren told the doctor he did not intend to injure anyone, just to disrupt the mine. He said he feels remorse for his victims, and their families.

He maintained his innocence and "kept the pretence" for a variety of reasons, including potentially implicating people. He finally admitted his crime because a civil suit filed by families of the dead men is drawing nearer.

The lawsuit is currently in the discovery process, where both sides lay out their evidence. Defendants in the suit include Warren, former mine owner Peggy Witte, the Government of the Northwest Territories and others.

In a memorandum of judgment, filed June 30, NWT Supreme Court Justice John Vertes ordered Warren, 59, to undergo further psychiatric examination. The defendants asked for the application.

"He has, in these proceedings, admitted making and setting the bomb that caused the explosion," wrote Vertes.

"He has, however, denied that he intended to kill anyone. He says his intent was merely to sabotage the mine causing physical damage only. The issue therefore is not whether he did the act that caused the deaths but his intent or motive in doing so."

The plaintiffs are claiming the actions of various defendants led to an atmosphere where it was reasonably foreseeable that serious violence was likely to occur. The defendants, other than Warren, have by and large, pleaded non-liability by reason of Warren's intervening criminal act.

Warren confessed to the crime to police in 1993, and was convicted of second-degree murder in 1995.

Before this latest admission of guilt, Warren had professed his innocence, claiming he originally confessed because of stress, police coercion and an overwhelming desire to martyr himself and end the strike.

The Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted -- a group of southern lawyers responsible for freeing David Milgaard and Guy Paul Morin -- considered taking on Warren's case, but walked away from it earlier this year.

Jeffrey Champion, an Edmonton-based lawyer representing the families, said the truth is beginning to come out through the discovery process.

"Not only about what Roger Warren did and why he did it, but what influenced him to do it and what parties may have been responsible for it."

Champion said the families are grateful to the Workers Compensation Board for standing by the families during the civil suit.

The trial begins on Sept. 26. It is expected to last at least 10 months.