A Chilliwack provincial court judge has to decide whether or not to grant bail to a man convicted of violent sexual assaults of multiple women, and who has frequently violated parole orders.
Kevin Scott Miller was once designed a dangerous offender and remains on a long-term supervision order.
READ MORE: High-risk sex offender who was living in Chilliwack halfway house back in custody
Miller’s first serious conviction 22 years ago involved raping a 14-year-old girl near Victoria after grabbing her in a van and wrapping a cord around her neck.
Two months after that he met a 21-year-old woman at a cabaret downtown Victoria. The woman told the court she was drunk and tired, and the next thing she remembered was being strangled so hard her nose was bleeding.
Then on May 10, 1996 during an altercation with a prostitute, Miller pulled a drawstring out of his jacket and strangled her with it until she passed out.
One psychiatrist testified in 2000 that because of his youth, 28 at the time, his psychopathic score in the 86th percentile, and his excessive violence by the use of strangulation, Miller, if released, “would be much more likely than not to commit violent sexual offences with the possibility future offences would be much worse if indeed there is an aspect of sexual sadism present.”
While he has had no violent incidents on his record in 20 years, Miller has spent most of the last seven years in jail for parole violations and for, at least three times, taking off from halfway houses for extended periods of time. One time he fled to Montreal, one time to Albany, N.Y., and once to Washington State. He is a U.S. citizen.
The details of the alleged breach for which he is going to trial in November have not been outlined yet in court. He first appeared on that file Dec. 22, 2016 and he has been in custody since Sept. 24, 2016, the date of the allegation.
Without a lawyer at the time he appeared via video in court in January 2017 again stating that his detention was unwarranted.
“I shouldn’t be in custody,” he told a BC Supreme Court Justice via video on Jan. 23.
In opposing his release on bail on Oct. 12 in court, just three weeks before his latest trial is set to begin, Crown counsel Henry Waldock outlined Miller’s background with the criminal justice system.
At the request of Miller’s lawyer David Ferguson, however, Judge Richard Browning issued a publication ban on the evidence or information put forward at the bail hearing meaning it can’t be reported by The Progress until the trial is complete.
One of Miller’s victims contacted Black Press over a year ago upset that Miller was living in halfway house in Chilliwack.
“I really am just exasperated with the justice system,” she said via email. “I’m tired of referring to myself, and others, as victims; however, the system continues to re-victimize every person who has ever been raped or sexually assaulted. His release is the most ridiculous outcome I could ever imagine for a person who regularly breaches conditions, and has previously been unlawfully at large.”
She wasn’t only upset he was released to the halfway house, but that there was no media release issued and no warning to the community.
Last year Black Press obtained a copy of a federal release notice regarding Miller and his requirement to reside in a halfway house in the Chilliwack area “to which he must return on a nightly basis.”
Miller faces numerous conditions on his long-term order (LTO), including that he not be alone or in an isolated setting with any females; not to own, use or possess a computer; abstain from intoxicants; report all relationships with women to a parole officer; to address issues and emotional instability and anger management; and to participate in a sex offender program.
It’s that third condition, abstaining from intoxicants, that may be getting Miller into further trouble as he is accused in his breach charge of having THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his blood stream.
Given Miller’s 10-year LTO began in 2010, and adding in the time he was at large in the U.S., his supervision order expires on July 7, 2022.
Judge Browning is scheduled to make a decision on whether to release Miller on bail or order him detained on Oct. 17.
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