Allegations of the sexual assault of a Kelowna child by a known predator have traumatized the community and someone needs to answer for it, Kelowna Mission MLA Renee Merrifield said.
Speaking in the legislature earlier this week, Merrifield said Taylor Dueck being released into Kelowna and then allegedly assaulting an 11-year-old girl at an equestrian centre where she was taking lessons is a “complete violation of trust between this (provincial) government and those it is supposed to serve.”
“At no point was anyone told about this predator’s criminal record, the condition that he have one-to-one supervision at all times and that he was not to be around children,” Merrifield said.
“While children were arriving for after-school lessons (at an equestrian centre), this convicted child molester’s supervisor sat in the parking lot in his vehicle for two and a half hours. The result was an 11-year-old girl being cornered and sexually assaulted in the bathroom by this predator.”
Merrifield demanded to know how this “total failure to happen.”
“Who is going to take responsibility for this complete and utter failure so it never happens again,” Merrifield said.
She went on to say the child and the community are traumatized by the series of events, which the Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth has already called an investigation into.
“Our communities are not going to be protected by some investigation and analysis and report,” she said, adding that action needs to be taken to put the safety of the community at higher priority than that of offenders.
“The premier needs to be held accountable and needs to stop prioritizing the rights of a pedophile over the rights of the community to feel safe. Who is going to take responsibility for this total failure to protect our children?”
B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma said that the matter is being taken seriously and the government is getting to the bottom of what happened.
“We need to find out what happened to make sure this never happens again in this province to another child,” Sharma said.
Dueck had a bail hearing on Wednesday and a decision on his potential release. The BC Prosecution Service said the judge has reserved her decision and Dueck is back in court on March 8.
If he does gain release, it’s unclear whether a warning will be made.
Lower Mainland RCMP in 2020 issued a warning about Dueck under the Privacy Act of Canada because he had been deemed a high risk to reoffend sexually. Police said at the time that he posed a risk to the safety of female children under the age of 18 years old.
When he was released into Kelowna prior to recent allegations, RCMP did not issue a public interest disclosure, saying the threshold had not been deemed to have been met by the agency with “the best and most recent knowledge of the subject.”
“While we cannot speak for other agencies, the BC RCMP has been very proactive with issuing a PID when we become aware of a person’s release into one of our communities,” Cpl. Michael Gauthier said in a statement. “I can confirm that a PID was sought prior to his release in Kelowna, however, the threshold was not met in this case based on the totality of the circumstances.”
What agency may have made that determination remains to be seen. The Parole Board of Canada twice denied Dueck release from prison when serving time for a similar incident.
In an October 2022 decision, the board pointed out that Dueck had been on some form of court-ordered supervision or had been serving a jail sentence exclusively for offenses involving sexual violence, without any real break, for nearly the previous nine years.
At that time, a psychological risk assessment was completed and Dueck was found to be “well above average risk for future sexual offending.” The assessor, in that case, said Dueck could re-offend at any time if he came across a female, of any age, he viewed as “weaker or easily manipulated/controlled.”