A well-known convicted sex offender in Vancouver has pleaded guilty to three criminal charges he was faced with, after fleeing a halfway house in 2023.
Randall Hopley went missing for ten days after cutting off his electronic monitoring device in November 2023 and breaching some of his court conditions.
He was arrested by an off-duty Vancouver police officer outside a police station.
Sgt. Steve Addison later confirmed Hopley was going to turn himself in because he was “cold.”
Hopley appeared in court in Vancouver on Friday and pleaded guilty to failing to attend court, breaking a long-term supervision order by being in the presence of children under 16, and failing or refusing to comply with a long-term supervision order by failing to reside at a community residential facility.
Crown prosecutor Jacinta Lawton presented an agreed statement of facts, telling the court how Hopley had entered Vancouver’s Marpole Branch library on Nov. 10, 2022, and used a computer to browse the internet while a family storytime was taking place. Hopley was under a 10-year long-term supervision order at the time, which included a ban on being near children aged 16 and under.
He was arrested and later released under new conditions in February 2023, including wearing an ankle monitor and abiding by an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.
On Nov. 4, he failed to return to the Harbour Light halfway house by his curfew, walked to Main Street and East Broadway, and removed his ankle monitor, which was never recovered.
A Canada-wide warrant was issued, and on Nov. 14 he presented himself at the VPD annex at 236 East Cordova telling police he was not expecting the weather to be so cold and that he would not have turned himself in if it had been summer.
“Hopley has proved to be quite impervious to efforts to rehabilitate him in community,” Lawton said.
She told the court his breaches were serious and that Corrections Canada’s strictest restrictions were not working to manage his behaviour.
She referenced the 2022 incident in which he put himself in the presence of children and that he had planned his actions when he fled the halfway house.
“He’d packed his belongings up clearly with a view of not coming back, she said.
Hopley is known for abducting a three-year-old boy from a southeastern B.C. home in 2011.
He completed a six-year prison term for the abduction and was released in 2018 under a 10-year long-term supervision order.
Hopley had been living at a halfway house where he had overnight leave privileges, contingent on approval from his parole supervisor.
Despite cutting off his ankle monitor and fleeing his halfway house, federal officials declined to rescind Hopley’s overnight leave privileges, despite his previous breaches and the November incident where he was unlawfully at large.
“There is no information that your most recent concerning breach-related incidents were related to your authorization of overnight leave,” the decision states.
“While the board concurs with your (case management team) that your most recent behaviours are concerning when it comes to any potential leave authorization, the Board also notes the required approval from your parole supervisor prior to the granting of any leaves and therefore does not believe it necessary to remove the previous authorization.”
The decision not to rescind Hopley’s privileges led to some choice words from B.C. Premier David Eby.
“Clearly there is something that is not working here. The problem is definitely Randall Hopley, but it is also a system that allows him to be continuously released in our community to put kids at risk, it’s not acceptable,” Eby said in February. “I will be reaching out to federal counterparts about this so they can address this.”
Hopley has been diagnosed with pedophilia, borderline intellectual functioning and a personality disorder, according to the parole board.
He has had his release suspended four times since 2019 for breaching conditions or being aggressive.
The document also notes halfway house staff have found sex toys, adult pornography, adult male and female underwear and sim cards in Hopley’s possession.
He has been assessed as a high risk to reoffend sexually and a moderate risk for other types of offences, it adds, and has repeatedly shown himself to have problems with self-control, including a history of angry outbursts at staff and his parole supervisor.