Parole board recommends new criminal charge against man who abducted B.C. boy
Credit to Author: The Canadian Press| Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2019 21:53:19 +0000
A parole board has recommended a criminal charge of failing to comply with supervision orders for a man convicted of abducting a three-year-old boy from his home in Sparwood.
Randall Hopley served almost five years for abduction and breaking-and-entering but was released last November under a long-term supervision order to a residential facility in the Lower Mainland.
A board decision released Monday says police received information a month after Hopley’s release that he allegedly sent a letter to a high-profile sex offender on supervision suggesting a relationship, offering the offender gifts and a cellphone so they could discuss previous criminal matters.
In June, the decision says Hopley acted threateningly toward a parole supervisor and when officers were sent to pick him up he resisted arrest.
Hopley abducted the boy from his home in September 2001 and returned him unharmed a few days later.
He was under numerous release conditions including that he stay away from children under 16 and keep the peace.
The Parole Board of Canada decision dated Aug. 16 says it appears Hopley’s risk is unmanageable and recommends the Crown charge Hopley with breaching his conditions. No one from the B.C. prosecution service was available to comment on the board’s recommendation.
The decision says Hopley, 54, hasn’t developed significant insight into his risks, particularly his sexual risk factors.
“When you were provided with information you did not agree with, you lost control of your emotions, deflected responsibility from yourself to your former parole supervisor and behaved in a threatening and obstructive manner. When police came to your door, you resisted.”
The decision says Hopley hasn’t accepted responsibility for the circumstances for his previous parole suspensions and has no insight into his sexually deviant or high-risk behaviour.