Randall Hopley

REPOST (from 2018)

WARNING DISTURBING CONTENT

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.

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