A man who lured several young women into a Kelowna prostitution ring has been released from prison to a halfway house.
Simon Rypiak pleaded guilty in February 2019 to four counts of procuring adults to offer sexual services and one count of obtaining a material benefit from sexual services. He was sentenced to four years in prison that April.
In September 2020, the Parole Board of Canada denied Rypiak full parole but granted him day parole for six months, to be served at a halfway house in an undisclosed location. Rypiak had initially requested to be released back to the B.C. Interior, but the Parole Board decided against it as it would bring him back to the same community in which he committed the offences.
Finding him a significant risk to re-offend, the board denied Rypiak’s application for full parole. In its decision, the board describes Rypiak as misogynistic and said he frequently minimized and deflected his responsibility.
“At times, you appeared to deflect responsibility and blame others, including the victim, for the circumstances you find yourself in.”
Rypiak’s conviction is tied to four women aged 18 and 19 who he found on dating websites and lured into prostitution. Rypiak initially faced accusations related to girls as young as 15; however, those claims were never tested in court. The Crown stayed charges of assault and sexual assault after Rypiak’s guilty plea.
An investigation into Rypiak’s activities started in September 2015 and led to several alleged victims being identified by police across several policing jurisdictions in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and as far away as Quebec.
While Rypiak’s day parole ends in March, he will likely again try to apply for full parole.
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