WATCH ABOVE: One of the men convicted in helping gunman James Roszko kill four RCMP officers is one step closer to freedom. Fletcher Kent was at Shawn Hennessey’s hearing.
BOWDEN, Alta. – A man convicted for his role in the shooting deaths of four Alberta Mounties in Mayerthorpe nine years ago has been granted day parole.
Shawn Hennessey dabbed his eyes as the parole board ruled he will only have to stay at a halfway house in the evenings.
The board said the 36-year-old has taken responsibility for his actions and shown empathy for his victims.
“It will bother me for the rest of my life. The hurt I have caused for so many people will never go away,” Hennessey told the board Tuesday.
“I think four lives were torn apart that day. Their loved ones will never get their lives back. I am grateful to be able to return back to my family.”
(Watch above: A man convicted for his role in the shooting deaths of four Alberta Mounties in Mayerthorpe nine years ago was granted day parole. Fletcher Kent reports from Bowden.)
Hennessey and his brother-in-law, Dennis Cheeseman, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for giving James Roszko a rifle and a ride to Roszko’s farm near Mayerthorpe in 2005.
Constables Peter Schiemann, Anthony Gordon, Brock Myrol and Leo Johnston had been guarding a Quonset hut on Roszko’s farm as part of a marijuana grow-op and automobile chop-shop investigation.
Roszko then ambushed and killed the four officers before he killed himself.
Hennessey was sentenced in 2009 to 10 years and four months for his role in the crime. Cheeseman was handed seven years and two months. They both lost court appeals asking for shorter sentences.
Cheeseman was granted statutory release late last year after serving two-thirds of his sentence, but was re-arrested last month for having prescription drugs that were not in his name. He pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance and was fined $1,000.
Hennessey had already been granted more unescorted, temporary absences following a hearing a year ago.
READ MORE: Shawn Hennessey granted temporary unescorted absences
He has been allowed to visit his family for up to 78 hours, once every month, for six months.
The board ruled Tuesday that those unescorted visits can continue.
Hennessey does not have a job yet, but has an offer to work construction in the Barrhead, Alta., area, where his family lives.
None of the members of the officers’ families was on hand for Tuesday’s hearing.
“I will prove I am a different person, that these things will never come from Shawn Hennessey again,” Hennessey said.
“I want to honour the victims and prove I have changed. ”
His statutory release date is Dec. 29, 2015.
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