A man with a history of violent sexual assaults involving children has allegedly re-offended in Kelowna.
The leader of the provincial opposition party, Kevin Falcon spoke at a press conference on Feb. 29, and asked why the public was not notified of convicted sex offender, Taylor Dueck’s release from prison.
“This government neglected to notify the public that there was a dangerous pedophile like this in their presence,” 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 Kelowna, said Falcon.
Cpl. Michael Gauthier with the Kelowna RCMP has confirmed that Dueck is currently in custody.
According to Cpl. Gauthier, police had requested that a Public Interest Disclosure (PID) be issued prior to Dueck’s release.
Gauthier said that the “threshold was not met in this case based on the totality of the circumstances,” and the RCMP’s request for a PID was denied.
The B.C. Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, Mike Farnworth also spoke at the legislature on Thursday, Feb. 29, saying he is, “very angry over what has happened.”
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 RCMP’s request for a PID.
“I 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,” he said.
There is no timeline for when the investigation into the decision not to issue a PID regarding Dueck’s release from prison will be completed.
“We are going to make sure this never happens again,” said Farnworth.
Farnworth said the investigation is currently underway.
Black Press 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 that 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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Additionally, in 2018 the Parole Board of Canada denied Dueck’s application for parole, saying there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that he was “likely to commit an offence causing death or serious harm to another person.”
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.
A bail hearing for Dueck has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 5 at 1:30 p.m. in Kelowna.
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