B.C. man, sentenced to seven years for sexually touching young girls, released after 10.5 months
PAUL HENDERSON
Chilliwack Progress
The mother of a young victim of sexual touching is outraged the perpetrator is out of prison just 10-and-a-half months after receiving a seven-year jail sentence.
The Progress has learned that at approximately 1 p.m. on Dec. 4, Corey Bryan James Neyrinck was released from jail with a plan to live in a halfway house in Surrey.
Neyrinck was sentenced on Jan. 19 in B.C. Supreme Court to seven years for sexually touching a person under 16; sexually touching a person under 14; and one count each of producing and possessing child pornography.
Because of delays caused by Neyrinck himself, which included firing or otherwise losing six lawyers, he spent 1,374 days in pre-trial custody before that January sentencing hearing. With the standard 1.5-to-one day of time served, he was given credit for 2,061 days leaving 16 months and seven days to serve.
With statutory release, which means offenders are released after serving two thirds of a sentence, that brings Neyrinck to this week, a reality that was sprung on a victim’s mother just a day before he was released.
“I just feel I have been kept out of loop for so long,” she told The Progress Tuesday. “This horrendous thing happened to my family but I feel like a stranger not knowing anything until last minute. These victims are children and as their parents we need to keep them safe. How can we do that when we aren’t kept informed?”
Neyrinck’s case garnered broader attention when he was first charged back in 2014 because he is a one-time failed candidate for the Chilliwack school board, and once served as vice-president of the local District Parent Advisory Council.
He received 54 votes in the 2013 trustee by-election won by Dan Coulter to replace Louise Piper who resigned for medical reasons.
Neyrinck was touching more than one girl for years until one victim finally told students at school about it, the court heard. He also watched pornographic videos with the girl that included child porn, and filmed some of his sexual touching.
On all his computers and electronic devices, Neyrinck was found with 2,326 images and 307 videos that met the legal definition of child pornography.
“He threatened her that if she told her mom he would punch her,” Crown counsel Paul Blessin told the court in January.
While he was out on bail at one point, Neyrinck breached conditions by contacting the victim’s mother, and even faking a lie detector test. He was also caught in an RV with internet access, a further breach.
That victim’s mother said she was told by a relative of Neyrinck on Tuesday that he already has a phone and he has zero conditions on his internet access.
“He’s a dangerous man,” she said. “We have not seen the last of him. They are giving him too much freedom.”
The Progress was unable to confirm his release conditions, but one unusual element of his sentencing was, despite the fact that he was in Supreme Court, he had spent so much time in pre-trial custody that he was left with a provincial (under two years) sentence rather than a federal one. And because federal sentences cannot be accompanied by probation after the time in custody, this led Justice Paul Riley to ask if probation had been considered. Crown and defence said it had not.
“I do have a concern about imposing a sentence that just ends with no supervision after,” Riley said.
In the end, Riley did hand down a one-year probation order including a no-contact order, a ban on attending places where children under 16 might be, and use of internet capable devices only with permission from a probation officer.
This sentence read in court differs from what the victim’s mother said she was told this week regarding Neyrinck’s access to the internet, and his supervision by the courts.
He also does have to register as a sex offender for life.
“I’m sorry and I want to apologize for my actions,” Neyrinck said at the sentencing in January. “I realize what I’ve put everyone through must have been excruciating.
“I believe everybody has the right to feel angry.”
'I'm a demon inside': Ottawa Teacher
convicted of sex crimes sought treatment
For 23 years, Ottawa music teacher Bob Clarke
sought psychiatric help to control his 'sick' urges
Julie Ireton · CBC News
Former high school music teacher Bob Clarke was convicted in March of sex crimes involving eight students in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. A risk behaviour report filed with the court reveals he repeatedly sought psychiatric treatment during that time. (Bell High School yearbook photo)
A former music teacher convicted of sexually abusing students at two Ottawa high schools sought treatment from more than a dozen psychologists and psychiatrists — and even asked to be castrated — all while he continued working with children.
A risk behaviour report filed with the Ontario Court of Justice reveals retired teacher Bob Clarke, now 74, began seeking professional help as far back as 1969.
Clarke taught at a number of Ottawa schools between 1968 and 1992. In March, he pleaded guilty to sex crimes involving eight teenage boys at two high schools, Bell and Sir Robert Borden, during the 1970s, '80s and '90s. He's currently serving a two-year prison sentence.
CBC News has learned Clarke sought treatment over a period spanning 23 years.
"If he was trying to get help, the system failed us. It failed him as well as me and the other victims," said John Myers, one of Clarke's victims at Bell High School in the late 1970s.
The 2017 sexual behaviours assessment, commissioned by Clarke's lawyer and produced by the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, concludes Clarke fell through the cracks.
"It appears that his behaviour was either minimized by assessing psychiatrists or his care was transferred to other psychiatrists and he was lost in followup and discharged from treatment," wrote the report's author, Jonathan Gray, a staff psychiatrist with The Royal's sexual behaviours clinic.
John Myers attended Bell High School in the late 1970s, when he was victimized by Bob Clarke. (Julie Ireton/CBC )
"By the time he was assessed by Dr. Bradford in 1992 … he was already out of his teaching position and the damage was done."
Neither Gray nor any other psychiatrist at The Royal agreed to speak to CBC about the report, citing privacy reasons.
John Myers, a victim of sexual abuse by former teacher Bob Clarke, reacts to a report which reveals Clarke sought treatment for 'sexual dysfunctions' as early as 1969. Clarke is currently serving a two-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to sex crimes involving eight teen boys in the 1970s through the 1990s. 0:48
'Just castrate me'
CBC asked the court to unseal the 25-page report. A judge and Clarke's defence lawyer agreed to the request, but only after victims' names and certain sections of the report had been redacted.
It shows Clarke began to voluntarily seek therapy in 1969, his second year of teaching. He told a psychiatrist then that he was becoming fed up with his own inappropriate comments in front of students.
"He said he became very upset and told the psychiatrist to 'just castrate me,'" according to the report.
At the time, Clarke denied touching students. But in 1975, he admitted himself to the The Royal after an encounter with a teenager in his neighbourhood.
"Mr. Clarke recently touched a 15-year-old boy and may have charges laid against him," noted Clarke's 1975 hospital records.
Police questioned Clarke at the time, but no charges were laid.
A 'long-standing problem'
The report details how Clarke sought treatment from more than a dozen psychologists and psychiatrists, some in private practice, others at The Royal's clinics.
I'm a demon inside and my subconscious sometimes
overrides my conscious mind.
- Bob Clarke, quoted in risk behaviour report
"Clarke explained that inappropriate comments and behaviour have been a long-standing problem for him. He said as early as Grade 8 he had asked a group of other peers if they could have a 'sex club,'" the report states.
It's unclear exactly what Clarke told his various therapists over the years about any inappropriate physical contact with his students.
"I've made mistakes. I'm so sorry for having hurt them," Clarke is quoted saying in the report. "My own analysis is that I'm a demon inside and my subconscious sometimes overrides my conscious mind."
In a 1975 yearbook photo,
Bob Clarke conducts the Bell High School band.
(Bell High School yearbook, 1975)
A 'sick puppy'
Clarke would eventually plead guilty to a gross indecency charge stemming from allegations made by John Myers, now 57. Myers consented to the court lifting the publication ban on his name.
On multiple occasions, Clarke masturbated in front of Myers, asking him to join in. Once it happened while they were sitting together on a chairlift during a band trip to the West Coast.
During the 2017 interview with Gray, Clarke was asked how he felt about doing these things to Myers.
"I felt disgusted with myself. I thought, 'You're a sick puppy,'" Clarke told the psychiatrist.
Myers, who now struggles with his own mental health issues, has read the report.
He was mentally ill and he didn't get the care he should have gotten.
- John Myers , former student and victim of Bob Clarke
"It was very emotional for me to read it," he said. "I've always had the panic attacks and I've had anxiety and depression, and the doctors directly relate all my problems back to the Bob Clarke days."
Myers, who has also sought treatment at The Royal, maintains some sympathy for his former teacher.
"I do in a way feel sorry for him," he said. "He did seek help…. He was mentally ill and he didn't get the care he should have gotten."
Bob Clarke regularly sought treatment at The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.
(Giacomo Panico/CBC)
Forced out of teaching
During the entire time Clarke was seeking treatment, he remained in close contact with students, and was often alone with them.
"He was able to create situations in which he was alone with his male students and act out sexually with them," wrote Gray.
Clarke was forced to resign from teaching in 1992 because of repeated sexual misconduct toward mainly male students, the report states.
But it was only in 2017 that Gray's report recommended Bob Clarke "should be prohibited any unsupervised access ... any employment or volunteer positions in which he is in a position of trust and authority over males under the age of 18."
Duty to report
Medical professionals and therapists have a legal duty to report if they suspect a patient is harming or has the potential to harm a child.
The current director of The Royal's sexual behaviours clinic, Dr. Paul Fedoroff, wouldn't comment directly on the Clarke case or the 2017 report. But he said if a teacher came to him today admitting to inappropriately touching a student, he'd be obligated to report the matter to the Children's Aid Society for followup.
He also said programs now in place can effectively treat people with sexual attraction to children through counselling, peer support and medication.
"You can stop the pathway," Federoff said. "All sexual behaviours are under voluntary control."
122 charged in child pornography investigations
across Ontario last month
'These people are our neighbours, relatives and friends,' OPP says
CBC News
Provincial police and local law enforcement officials charged more than 122 people
with online child sexual abuse last month. (OPP)
Police services across Ontario charged 122 people with 551 charges related to online child sexual abuse last month alone — a disturbing snapshot into a crime the OPP says is seeing its victims get younger and abuse more violent.
Sin is progressive!
The charges laid by the OPP and 26 other police agencies were announced during a press conference in Vaughan, Ont., Wednesday. A total of 55 victims were also identified during month of investigations and referred to community support services.
The youngest victim was three years old.
"Sadly, we are seeing the children getting younger, as well as the acts depicted more violent," said OPP Staff Sgt. Sharon Hanlon, co-ordinator of the provincial strategy to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation on the internet.
Teachers, emergency personnel, members of the military and family members were among those charged last month, she added.
"You need to know that these people are our neighbours, relatives and friends. These are people we invite into our worlds because we trust them."
16 charged in online child sex abuse roundup
The Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation on the Internet was launched in 2006.
Here's a look at some of what is cited as its accomplishments since then:
50,403 investigations of internet exploitation.
5,686 persons charges with 20,901 charges.
2,009 child victims identified in Ontario and around the world.
Insp. Tina Chalk from the OPP's counter-exploitation and missing persons section said it's important for people to understand sexual interest in children and a demand for images and video depicting it are a reality in Ontario.
"Some of these victims are so young they cannot report the crimes, because they have not uttered their first word," said Chalk.
"They cannot say no, they cannot tell anyone, and they cannot call the police."
Those infants, and even older children are literally voiceless. They don't know who to tell, or how to tell, why to tell, or even what to tell sometimes. They desperately need education in these basics.
About 1 in 4 Canadian girls will be sexually abused before they turn 18; far more than the percentage of children who may come out as gay or transgender. And yet, virtually all Canadian sex education is focused on them while so many more children are being destroyed by perverts. It's what happens when you give control of sex education to the LGBTQ lobbies.
Two N.S. nurses to tell UN committee of women's
'non-state torture' in Canada
Caution: graphic and disturbing descriptions below
A general view of the Human Rights Room (Room XX) at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland in seen in this Nov. 8, 2008 file photo. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
Janice Dickson, THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA -- Canada needs a special criminal charge to cover extended campaigns of physical and emotional abuse that amount to torture, say two Nova Scotia nurses who are in Geneva to try to shame the country before a United Nations body.
Linda MacDonald and Jeanne Sarson, nurses and human rights advocates from Nova Scotia, are appearing before the United Nations Committee Against Torture this week to apply more pressure on the Canadian government to amend the Criminal Code to include "non-state torture" as a distinct crime.
"Electric shocking ... caging, shackling in basements, water torture in a toilet or a bucket ... (it's) done at home or in a private place with tools you wouldn't think of like a hot electric light bulb or a gun, scissors or knitting needles," said MacDonald.
Many of the acts are already crimes in themselves, but MacDonald and Sarson argue that protracted abuse is a particular kind of crime that isn't captured by a charge of, for instance, aggravated assault. Canadian criminal law only recognizes torture as a crime if it's done by someone working for the state.
The abuse they're talking about is often perpetrated by victims' relatives, friends of older family members, human traffickers, and johns who want very violent sex. MacDonald said that because non-state torture is not identified as a crime, there is no data to show how widespread the problem is.
If the numbers at one women's centre in Ontario are any indication, it could be stunning. Megan Walker, the executive director of the London Abused Women's Centre, said 59 women between January and October fit the description of victims of torture.
Walker said more than once a woman has come to the centre struggling to walk because an intimate partner has shoved a hot curling iron into her vagina.
Women and girls' stories are so horrendous, she said, they're terrified of reporting perpetrators to the police because they fear no one will believe them. They also fear that if they are caught reporting the abuse, the terror will escalate.
In Ottawa in 2009, federal public servant Donna Jones died after her husband doused her with boiling water -- the culmination of many months of physical and emotional abuse. She went 11 days without medical attention after the scalding, apparently not calling for help even though a telephone was within reach where she lay on a makeshift bed in her basement. She had broken bones and air-gun pellets in her skin when she died of septic shock from her burns. A jury eventually convicted her husband of murder.
In Winnipeg this fall, police said a woman who was being trafficked for sex was regularly locked in a freezer until she passed out from lack of air, and subjected to electric shocks. She was victimized for four months, police said.
Children sometimes suffer long-term abuse by guardians who mistake what they're doing for discipline. In another Ottawa case, a former police officer was sentenced to 15 years in prison last year for chaining his son up in a basement, starving him, and burning his genitals.
Walker said she sees women who have been abused by their partners or relatives, and women and girls who are trafficked, but most abusers have one thing in common: an attraction to violent pornography and a desire to realize their fantasies.
"These girls will have identified to us that they have been dragged across the floor by their hair, had their heads put into the toilet where they can't breathe, and the toilet consistently flushes, they'll come up for a breath and then will be pushed down again," she said. Victims suffer permanent physical and psychological damage.
Walker said the extreme forms of violence could be considered state torture if a government were responsible.
She wants to see non-state torture identified as a crime so women's experiences are validated, to establish a data bank where torture can be tracked, and so that law officials and medical providers can be trained to recognize signs and believe women when they come forward with their stories.
The London Abused Women's Centre shared questionnaires with The Canadian Press that victims completed, without identifying information.
One individual wrote on a survey, "When you're tortured, it destroys who you are and what you know. It annihilates what it is to be human. You are still in the human race if you are abused, but you don't exist as a human being when you are tortured."
MacDonald and Sarson have been pushing this cause for 25 years. The closest they came to change was a private member's bill from Ontario Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos, which died in 2016.
Fragiskatos' bill proposed to change the Criminal Code to define torture as an act of violence carried out not just by state actors but also ordinary citizens. He said it was unsuccessful because the House of Commons justice committee determined it would conflict with Canada's obligations under international laws that specify that torture is a crime carried out by a government.
"That was the vision, but the proposal was found to conflict with international law, that torture is a state crime," said Fragiskatos.
MacDonald and Sarson say a number of countries have included non-state torture or sexual torture in their criminal laws.
MacDonald said after the pair appeared before the UN anti-torture committee in 2012, it recommended Canada change its Criminal Code to include non-state torture. Now they're going back to tell the committee Canada failed.
Celia Canon, a spokesperson for Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, said creating the offence of private torture could "seriously weaken" Canada's contribution to the international effort to prevent torture under the Convention against Torture, because there would be two definitions.
Good grief!
Canon said the Criminal Code already contains numerous crimes of assault, including sexual assault.
"In other words, the Criminal Code already contains crimes that capture the kind of conduct associated with private torture, most notably the crimes of aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault, while existing sentencing provisions already provide a range of aggravating factors that could apply in a case of private torture," she said.
But the activists reiterated that what women and girls experience behind closed doors is consistent with state torture and is beyond the various classes of assault.
"Activists say if you try all avenues the only thing left is social shaming, so that's what we're hoping to do because Canada is held up as a beacon of human rights around the world right now," MacDonald said.
Nova Scotia teacher charged with
sex offences involving teen
CBC News
David Benjamin Harrison taught math at the Northeast Kings Education Centre in Canning, N.S.
(Colleen Jones/CBC)
A 39-year-old high school teacher in Nova Scotia's Kings County is facing sex charges involving a teenage girl that stem from a number of incidents over the course of years.
Nova Scotia RCMP said Wednesday they were contacted by the alleged victim this past July. She was 16 years old when the incidents began in 2013. RCMP Cpl. Jennifer Clarke said the alleged abuse continued until this past summer.
David Benjamin Harrison, a math teacher at Northeast Kings Education Centre in Canning, was arrested Tuesday after police searched his Canaan home with a warrant. He has been charged with sexual assault, luring a child and sexual exploitation.
During the search, police seized a cellphone and were able to recover evidence that supported the victim's claims, said Clarke.
Teacher placed on leave
In a letter sent to parents, Northeast Kings principal Kevin Veinot said Harrison is now on leave. The letter did not specify whether it is paid or unpaid leave.
Veinot said the school doesn't have further details on the investigation but "all appropriate policies and procedures are being followed. Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of our students and we understand this situation may be difficult for the school community," he said in the letter.
Harrison is still listed on the school's website as a Grade 11 and 12 math teacher.
Released on bail
He appeared in Kentville provincial court Wednesday and was released on a $3,000 recognizance. The conditions of his release include staying away from the victim, whose name is protected by a publication ban, and having no contact with anyone under the age of 18 besides family members.
Harrison is scheduled to return to court on Dec. 18.
In an email to CBC News, Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education acknowledged the nature of the charges are concerning and said the centre is co-operating fully with RCMP.
Charges 'troubling news,' says union
Kristen Loyst, who handles communications for the centre, said it learned late Tuesday that RCMP were on the verge of charging a staff member.
The centre learned the details of the charges Wednesday, after which Harrison was put on leave, she said. Loyst wouldn't say whether Harrison is on paid or unpaid leave, only that the process follows the collective agreement.
NSTU president Paul Wozney was not available for an interview Wednesday. The union called the charges "troubling news" in a statement but said it would "be inappropriate for us to comment or speculate" on a case before the courts.
Police are asking that anyone with information about these incidents contact Kings District RCMP at 902-679-5555 or anonymously via Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Veinot said the school's counselling staff are available to support students and he invited parents with concerns to call him.
Former Saint John hockey coach sentenced to
35 months in prison
Hadeel Ibrahim · CBC News
A former Saint John, N.B. hockey coach convicted of sexual assault against a minor and child luring was sentenced Tuesday to 35 months in federal prison.
Scott Geikie got two years for sexually assaulting a child he knew through hockey and 12 months for luring that same child later by asking him, over Facebook, to masturbate. The assault happened in 2009 or 2010 and the child luring in 2011.
The victim, who cannot be identified because of a court order, was 12 or 13 years old when Geikie performed oral sex on him.
Geikie, 43, sat in a glassed-in booth, wearing all black, as the victim told the Court of Queen's Bench how his quality of life has suffered considerably because of the sexual abuse.
"Since having been assaulted my life has been affected," he told the court.
The abuse caused psychological and physical harm, anxiety and fear of others — even of those he's close to, he said.
The victim paused for a few minutes in the middle of his statement, then began speaking through tears.
"My relationships have been strained not only with family members but also with friends," he said. "I've continuously pushed them away, keeping myself isolated."
Character references
Geikie, a former head coach of the Bantam AAA Sea Dogs, was found guilty of the two charges on Nov. 9.
For the sentencing, the defence submitted six character references from people who believe Geikie has done a lot of good for the hockey community. Most of the the references were sent by email. Someone writing from Newfoundland said he worked with Geikie in Saint John and found him "reliable, genuine, truthful."
Geikie cried as he listened to the letter. Geikie had "youth's best interest" in mind, one letter said. Another said Geikie always treated his kids with respect. "I have nothing but positives to speak about him," the writer said.
Of course, most paedophiles are great guys, in public.
McLellan said he took the letters into consideration, but the psychological impact of the abuse can't be ignored. "The victim impact statement which the victim read today is painful," he said.
The judge repeated three times that what happened was not the victim's fault. "As clearly as words permit, I want to emphasize that Mr. Geikie's crimes are not the fault of the victim," he said.
The two sentences are to be served consecutively. Geikie was given credit of 30 days for time already spent in custody.
He will be placed on the sex offenders registry and can never contact the victim.
Geikie, who coached both hockey and baseball and worked at the Lord Beaverbook Rink, also won't be allowed to go near parks, pools, hockey rinks or baseball fields. He is barred from contacting children under 16 over the internet in any way, the judge said.
Here is just a partial list of serial child sex offenders
set free by the Canadian justice system
Canada has freed serial molesters, child torturers, child rapists, child pornographers and even child murderers, sometimes with horrific consequences
The Canadian justice system is so far from being the least bit protective of victims or potential victims while it goes through great contortions protecting the rights and privileges of the most heinous criminals in the country.
Tristin Hopper
Kingston Whig Standard
Child abductor Randall Hopley pictured in 2011. He has been released into Vancouver despite fears that he will abduct again.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/BILL GRAVELAND
In 2011, Randall Hopley snatched three-year-old Kienan Hebert from his second floor bedroom in Sparwood, B.C. Only an all-out response by B.C. police convinced Hopley to surrender the child unharmed four days later.
Hopley had been hurting young children since early adolescence and had prior convictions for both the abduction and sexual assault of minors.
Prior to Hebert’s abduction, Hopley was found to have built a “child lair” in the woods of the Crowsnest Pass. The room could be locked from the outside and contained sex toys, lotion and a pair of children’s pyjama pants altered to resemble a thong.
Last week, Hopley was freed from prison into the Vancouver area, his precise whereabouts concealed for “privacy reasons.” A parole board decision precipitating the release noted Hopley still had little appreciation of the harm he had caused and was unable to “manage” his risk to others.
It would be comforting to think that Hopley’s case is a disturbing anomaly, but it’s not. Serial molesters, child torturers, child rapists, child pornographers and even child murderers are regularly freed from Canadian jails or spared prison time, despite real fears that they will offend again.
Last month, the National Post published a list of particularly brutal murderers who have been released from Canadian jails. Below, a not-at-all-comprehensive list of repeat child sex offenders set loose by the Canadian justice system, often with horrific consequences.
Peter Whitmore
Whitmore has often been held up as the poster boy of a revolving-door justice system wholly unable to protect Canadian children from sexual abuse.
Whitmore has been repeatedly abducting and raping children since 1989. Although he has often been arrested and convicted, he has been little deterred by sentences as short as a few months.
In 1993, sex offences against four young boys got him just 16 months. Abducting and molesting an eight-year-old girl netted him another 56 months in jail. Getting arrested at a hotel room in 2000 with a 13-year-old boy got him a one year sentence. In 2002 he was caught with an abducted five-year-old and a “rape kit” that included zip ties, duct tape, KY lubricant and child pornography — this offence netted him only three years in jail.
In 2006 came his most publicized crime yet; the abduction from prairie farms of two young boys that Whitmore kept chained in an abandoned Kipling, Saskatchewan farm house, raping both for days. Even with this crime, Whitmore has been eligible to seek parole since 2015.
In 2016, one of the boys, Zach Miller, went public with his story in an attempt to provide hope to others who have been targeted by pedophiles — and ensure that Whitmore would never be free again. “I deal with night terrors every night. There’s nothing you can really do – I’ve learned just to let the emotions go. Just live through it,” he said. “I don’t want to see this happen to another family, to another child. But it just keeps happening.”
Brian Abrosimo FELICITY DON/VANCOUVER SUN
The first obvious signs of Abrosimo as a public menace came during the serial harassment of an ex-girlfriend over a period of 12 years. He broke into the woman’s home and raped her in 1992, barraged her with constant phone calls, repeatedly broke no-contact orders and assaulted her again in 2002. In the meantime he was racking up a myriad of other criminal charges, including a 1996 shooting committed just two months after his release from jail for sexual assault.
As his offences mounted, the parole board repeatedly demurred from returning him to jail, writing after the 1996 shooting that there is “little benefit of your reincarceration.”
This is a perfect example of how Canada's justice system completely ignores the dangers to women and children and focus totally on the benefit of the criminal - regardless of how hopeless he is.
In 2004, Abrosimo handcuffed a sex trade worker before brutally beating and raping the woman. A few days later, he drove his van into two young girls cycling in Langley, B.C. As they lay sprawled on the ground, he abducted the youngest one, an 11-year-old, taped shut her eyes and mouth and then raped the child.
At the time of both attacks Abrosimo was living in the Langley home of his mother. When he was handed an 18-year sentence for the crime, she tearfully told reporters, “I don’t think he needs to be put away that long.” She got her wish: As early as 2017, he was released into an Okanagan halfway house with relaxed curfew conditions. This came despite fervent pleas by victim’s families warning the parole board that Abrosimo had simply been coached by his parole officer to tell them what they wanted to hear.
Dale Kunath COURTESY GLOBAL CALGARY
Even in the soul-darkening world of prosecuting child abuse, Kunath’s case stood out. “This is, in my career, the most serious case of child abuse I’ve dealt with,” Crown prosecutor Jayme Williams said at the time of trial. In 2010, Kunath had tortured a six-week-old baby: He burned the baby’s feet with a lighter, tore the boy’s penis and repeatedly sodomized him with household objects. Doctors surmised that the child would suffer lifelong handicaps as a result of the mistreatment. At trial, Kunath’s main defence was that his torture of the infant was not sexually motivated, but was due to his anger at his girlfriend spending time with the baby’s biological father. In August, 2017 — not quite seven years after the crime — Kunath was released on day parole with the note that he had “showed regret.”
Criminals always have regret after they are caught!
John Austen Gallienne
KINGSTON WHIG-STANDARD
As a choirmaster at Anglican churches in Kingston and Victoria throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Gallienne had unfettered access to molest and sexually assault scores of young boys. One of his tricks was apparently to put his penis in the mouths of his young charges, telling them it would make them sing better.
Although 19 of Gallienne’s victims have now come forward to police, he has received only negligible prison terms for the abuse.
A 1990 conviction for the serial sexual abuse of 13 boys, two of whom later took their own lives, netted a sentence of only four and a half years — about four months per boy. Two more convictions came while he was in prison, but he was nevertheless released by October, 1994.
By 2004, Gallienne was found to be leading another choir at Ottawa’s St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church. More convictions for historical sex offences arrived in both 2011 and 2016, but each time Gallienne was merely handed probation or house arrest. Just this month, he was found guilty of two more sex offences from the 1980s.
“I just had so much rage and would lash out at anyone and everything,” one of his most recent accusers wrote in a victim impact statement quoted by the Kingston Whig-Standard. He ended the letter by wishing he could get Gallienne alone in a room to see “what I could do with the rage you’ve created.”
Lyle, left, and Cyle Larsen.
EDMONTON POLICE SERVICE
Based in Edmonton, the Larsen brothers are twins who both share a lengthy history of sexually victimizing young children, as well as a track record of repeatedly regaining their freedom despite showing every sign of seeking to victimize more children.
In 2009, Lyle was on probation for a prior sexual assault against a minor when he raped another minor at a party while photographing the crime.
A later psychological assessment determined Lyle had sexually assaulted at least 19 others, some as young as four. Lyle was first released in 2013 and kept regaining release despite serious breaches in his release conditions, such as attempting to groom an 11-year-old with autism or being caught staring at children playing in an Edmonton wading pool on Canada Day.
“The Edmonton Police Service has reasonable grounds to believe he will commit another sexual offence against someone under the age of 18,” read a public alert issued on his most recent release in 2016.
Cyle received a sentence of less than three years for luring a 10-year-old to his basement to sexually assault the girl. Here again, a string of early releases starting in 2012 resulted almost immediately in broken parole conditions, such as Cyle accessing child pornography online. After Cyle’s most recent release, in October, Edmonton Police similarly warned that he would be seeking to sexually exploit minors again “if given the chance.”
Ashton Dennis Natomagan
In 2002, Natomagan choked and sexually assaulted a sleeping 11-year-old girl, seriously injuring her in the attack. He had initially choked her to stop her screaming after breaking in to her home, but decided to rape her after realizing she was still breathing.
The crime netted Natomagan a four year sentence.
In 2008, he attacked and sexually assaulted a random 16-year-old girl in a Prince Albert, Sask. park. It was at this point that Saskatchewan prosecutors sought dangerous offender status for Natomagan — but the effort was struck down by a judge and later on appeal. “Mr. Natomagan’s offending is serious, but not as serious as the many other offenders declared to be dangerous in this jurisdiction and elsewhere,” read a 2012 decision by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.
In 2015, Natomagan was released into an Edmonton halfway house from which he quickly escaped. The next month, he abducted a 37-year-old female jogger in Edmonton, bound her with green painter’s tape, held a box cutter to her throat and raped her in a residential alley.
James Cooper TORONTO POLICE
In a 2012 feature, the Hamilton Spectator described Cooper as “the country’s worst pedophile.”
From 1967 to 1983, Cooper primarily targeted the step children from his two marriages. He not only groomed his five victims for entire childhoods packed with regular rape and sexual humiliation, but he severely physically abused them as well, employing torture instruments ranging from cattle prods to buggy whips. In one case, after a boy soiled his pants after being anally raped, Cooper forced him to eat his own feces in front of the other children.
“You are a lowdown, mean, despicable, evil manifestation of a human being that preys on little children,” Judge Nick Borkovich said in a 1993 decision that sentenced Cooper to 30 years in prison — the harshest ever for a Canadian child abuser in modern times.
Nevertheless, a combination of appeals and early release ensured that Cooper started getting out of jail as early as 2008. He has repeatedly breached his bail conditions, including inquiring about children’s programs at a community centre and striking up relationships that could again give him access to young children. Regardless, the releases continue, striking terror into the lives of Cooper’s former stepchildren. “I’m so worried he’s going to find me,” one told the Hamilton Spectator after Cooper was freed in 2015.
Christopher Watts in 2001.
Thirteen-year-old Amanda Raymond died of a drug overdose at an all-night party of minors hosted by Watts, then 41, at a home on Somme Island near Cambridge, Ont. While Raymond was comatose but still alive, Watts had sexually assaulted her.
Not only did Watts have a prior 1989 conviction for the forcible confinement of a 16-year-old girl, but a police search of the residence turned up a hidden camera and hundreds of naked photos of underage girls.
Despite an attempted flight from justice that included Watts ramming police cruisers in pursuit, the terms of his conviction for manslaughter and sexual assault allowed him to get out of jail as early as 2015.
In a pattern that is becoming familiar on this list, each release resulted almost immediately in recidivist behaviour, including possession of violent pornography and photos of high school aged girls. “The board is satisfied there is no appropriate program of supervision that can be established which would adequately protect society from your risk to reoffend,” the Parole Board of Canada wrote after one such breach in 2016. Regardless, the releases have continued, the most recent coming in January.
Graham James
James holds the dubious distinction of being one of Canada’s most well-known child sex offenders. As coach of the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos in the 1980s and 1990s, James freely sexually abused young boys under his charge, some of whom, such as Theoren Fleury and Sheldon Kennedy, went on to NHL careers.
Even as a lengthening list of former Swift Current players began to step forward to the police with abuse allegations starting in the late 1990s, James’ convictions have only netted a total combined sentence of about six years, in between which he had been granted legal pardons and gone on to coach other teams of young boys.
“Canada is the Disneyland for pedophiles,” Fleury wrote in an outraged response to James getting full parole in 2016 after serving only four years in jail for hundreds of sex assaults. James’ case could be compared to that of former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, who molested hundreds of young American gymnasts under the guise of performing a routine medical examination. Except in Nassar’s case, he received a sentence of up to 175 years and will die in jail.
Theo Fleury✔
@TheoFleury14
By granting day parole the Canadian justice system just kept more victims of rape silent and feeling more shame today!!!!! #wasntyourfault
Daniel Gratton
Gratton had a well-established history of child sexual predation with six known victims dating back nearly two decades. First caught and convicted in the early 1990s, he served only six years before regaining his freedom.
Although registered as a long-term offender and required to check in regularly with a parole officer, none of these things were a barrier in 2008 to Gratton kidnapping, drugging and sexually abusing two little girls, aged seven and 10, snatched off the streets of Edmonton.
His strategy was to pull up to unsupervised girls in a dark SUV, offer them puppies or ice cream and grab them when they got close. Police believe a province-wide Amber Alert may be all that scared Gratton into abandoning his spree after only two abductions. “I hate life,” one of the girls would say in a court statement. “I don’t see the point anymore. He took something away from me that night that I’ll never, ever be able to get back.”
Canada's justice system, from judges to parole boards, have failed to protect women and children from predators. In fact, they have enabled those predators named above, and many more, to continue their monstrous behaviour by setting them free while, they admit, there is no system to protect society from them. There's a certain measure of insanity in that!
Speaking of insanity, it can be argued that pedophiles have a certain degree of insanity. Some would call it demonic influence, if not possession. But why isn't there a system to protect society from the criminally insane? Why can't such evil people be held in an asylum until they are either cured of their pedophilia or dead?
Most of the monsters above have destroyed many lives. Why is it better to protect the rights of a single violent lunatic at the cost of the destruction of several innocent lives, or several dozen in some cases. Do the math. It's absurd!
Canada's justice system needs a complete and spectacular makeover, and it needs it yesterday.
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