The Parole Board of Canada has imposed a special condition on a convicted child molester, which bans him from meeting with known criminals, including those currently serving time.
Christopher Lance Neale, 65, has a lengthy criminal history of abusing children in Alberta and B.C, according to documents obtained by Black Press Media through a Freedom of Information request. This includes the sexual assault of three girls – aged 12 and 13 – in Surrey in the early 2000s, prompting an inter-provincial manhunt.
He is currently serving a 10-year community sentence in an unknown location, after finishing his prison sentence in 2015. The parole board has deemed Neale high-risk and likely to re-offend.
In early April 2020, a parole board member added the new condition to Neale’s long-term supervision order after it was discovered that he had assisted another child sex offender in obtaining computer-related information at a computer store the previous January.
According to the FOI’d documents, Neale didn’t ask for approval or share information about this meeting with his parole officer until it became clear that the officer was already aware of the meeting.
Moving forward, Neale will only be allowed to have contact with individuals who have a criminal history if that contact is first approved by his parole officer.
This isn’t the first time Neale has been dishonest about aiding sex offenders in the community, the documents show. In the past, Neale has helped other offenders set up websites and obtain second cellphones, sparking warnings and counselling from his parole officer.
“The board views this behaviour as serious; it appears you have not learned from prior sanctions and you continue to lie about your activities and behaviours,” the decision reads.
“Each of these conditions is specific to reducing your risk to re-offend against vulnerable children for your own sexual gratification.”
Other conditions in place include that Neale is not allowed to use alcohol or drugs and must stay away from children and sex workers. Restrictions have also been placed on his relationships and phone and internet use.
Neale has had 56 separate convictions related to predatory acts involving children, spanning from 1971 to 2005.
Neale was first convicted on charges related to sex assault of boys between the ages of 11 and 17 in 1987. The abuse is believed to have begun in 1978 in and around Edmonton.
After completing a sex offender program, Neale went on to become an outreach worker at an Edmonton church while on parole in 1989, where he molested a boy with intellectual disabilities.
In 1993, he was found guilty of raping an 11-year-old girl and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy. At the time of the offences he was working at a hotel.
A Canada-wide warrant was issued in 2003 after Neale was charged with sexually assaulting two 13-year-old girls and one 12-year-old girl while living in Surrey. According to reports at the time, Neale enticed the girls, believed to be runaways, to have sex with him for food and shelter, while claiming to be the property supervisor of the apartment building where he lived. He called himself “The Reverend,” while also using the alias Hank Christopher Breman.
Through that police investigation, Neale was arrested. He gave police a false name before subsequently failing to attend court on a promise to appear.
He was eventually captured and sentenced, in 2009, to 11 years behind bars. He was also deemed by the courts to be a dangerous offender. He served five years in a federal penitentiary before entering long-term supervision. Neale was transferred to a non-community residential facility in 2018.
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