A man with a history of violent sexual assaults involving children has allegedly re-offended in Âé¶čAV.
BC United Party leader Kevin Falcon spoke at a press conference on Feb. 29, asking why the public was not notified of convicted sex offender Taylor Dueckâs release from prison.
âThis government neglected to notify the public that there was a dangerous pedophile like this in their presence,â said Falcon.
Dueck had previously served multiple sentences for convictions of sexual assault. Dueck is now being accused of assaulting an 11-year-old girl in Âé¶čAV, said Falcon.
Âé¶čAV RCMP Cpl. Michael Gauthier has confirmed that Dueck is currently in custody.
According to Gauthier, police had requested that a Public Interest Disclosure (PID) be issued prior to Dueckâs release.
Gauthier said the âthreshold was not met in this case based on the totality of the circumstances,â and the RCMPâs request for a PID was denied.
The B.C. Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth also spoke in the legislature on Thursday, Feb. 29, saying he is âvery angry over what has happened.â
The minister said he has ordered an investigation into all provincial and federal agencies, including BC Corrections, that were involved in the decision to deny the RCMPâs request for a PID.
âI want to be sure there were no system failures and everything that should have been done is done because, quite frankly this should never have happened,â he said.
There is no timeline for when the investigation into the decision not to issue a PID regarding Dueckâs release from prison will be completed.
âWe are going to make sure this never happens again,â reiterated Farnworth in confirming the investigation is currently underway.
Black Press Media has submitted a request for comment from BC Corrections but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.
In 2020, the Abbotsford Police Department issued a public notice that Dueck was being released from custody and would be living in the community. The release stated Dueck has a criminal history that includes two counts of sexual assault, sexual assault of a person under 16 years of age and sexual assault with a weapon.
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In 2018, the Parole Board of Canada denied Dueckâs application for parole, saying there were âreasonable groundsâ to believe that he was âlikely to commit an offence causing death or serious harm to another person.â
The board noted that although Dueck had taken sex offender and other programs in prison, he continued to minimize his offences and was resistant to talking about them, nor did he have a release plan to manage his risk in the community.
