Gangster who aided Surrey Six killers gets statutory release
Credit to Author: Kim Bolan| Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2019 23:11:51 +0000
A B.C. gangster who helped killers get into the Surrey highrise where they slaughtered six people in 2007 has been granted release from prison. But Sophon Sek’s freedom may be short-lived as a deportation order has already been issued against the drug trafficker for his history of serious criminality.
In a Sept. 23 ruling, the Parole Board of Canada imposed special conditions on Sek’s statutory release — which almost all inmates get after serving two-thirds of their sentence. Board member Patrick O’Brien said Sek must stay away from criminal associates, live in a halfway house, have only one cellphone and provide all his financial records to a parole supervisor.
He must also stay away from the family of the Surrey Six victims.
O’Brien acknowledged that Sek isn’t a reformed man despite taking several courses inside prison while serving four of an almost six-year sentence.
“Throughout your sentence, your commitment and sincerity have been questioned due to reliable information that strongly suggests continued involvement and leadership with security-threat groups,” he said in his written ruling. “You dispute the assertions. However, the concerns were so pronounced that you were transferred out of your region and a return to that area on statutory release is being discouraged over concerns of your safety, as well as the safety of the community. These are serious allegations and concerns that, if at all founded, create potential for significant threats to public safety.”
Sek, 39, pleaded guilty in 2015 to break-and-enter for his role in the Surrey Six murders and received a one-year sentence. A manslaughter charge was dropped. The sentence was added to a five-year term he got in 2014 for several drug-trafficking and firearms convictions.
Sek has maintained that he never knew Red Scorpion gangsters Matthew Johnston, Cody Haevischer and a man who can only be identified as Person X planned to kill people inside Suite 1505 at the Balmoral Tower when he helped them get inside the building. Two of the victims, Chris Mohan and Ed Schellenberg, were bystanders caught up in the gangland murders.
O’Brien’s ruling noted that in 2017 B.C. parole board members denied Sek’s release because he “seriously minimized (his) criminal behaviour, was deceitful and remained active with security-threat groups.” And the board member said Sek’s involvement in trafficking took place while on bail on his Surrey Six charges.
“You were found to have been dealing an abundance and wide array of drugs from your place of business. A search of your home uncovered restricted weapons and ammunition,” O’Brien said. “The weapons were for protection and you readily acknowledged the dangerous nature of the drug world. Police believe that you have long been associated with drug-dealing through assorted criminal gangs.”
O’Brien said “the nature, volume and variety of drugs, coupled with possessing a machine-gun for protection, give reason to believe that your trafficking activities were extensive and linked to organized criminals.”
Sek, who came to Canada from Cambodia as a toddler, began to go astray as a youth.
“Child welfare became involved, you turned to the street, your education was interrupted and your employment history is limited,” the ruling said.
Sek was married with kids when he went to jail, but the board said the “marriage appears to have dissolved.”
Sek has been a successful gambler and once won more than $350,000 in a B.C. poker tournament. O’Brien said he decided not to impose any gambling prohibition on Sek because he did “not consider the lawful act of gambling as being linked to your risk.”
But the other conditions were necessary “to protect the public, victims and their families and to assist with the reintegration of you into society as a law-abiding citizen,” he said.