The family of a teen murdered nearly 10 years ago say they feel betrayed by a justice system that is giving her killers a chance at freedom.
Kimberly Proctor — who was 18 at the time — was raped, tortured and murdered on March 18, 2010 by her classmates, 16-year-old Kruse Wellwood and 17-year-old Cameron Moffat.
The pair pleaded guilty to first degree murder in October 2010, admitting to meticulously planning Proctor’s killing. On April 4, 2011, both were sentenced as adults to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.
But the Parole Board of Canada says Moffat and Wellwood are now eligible for day parole and will be eligible for full parole by June of next year.
In January, the family was notified by the parole board that Wellwood has applied for day parole.
In a social media post, father Fred Proctor wrote about his daughter’s murder in graphic detail, sharing details about what Kimberly was subjected to inside the Langford home she was lured to.
He also wrote about how he feels the justice system is re-victimizing his family by giving one of the killers a chance at leaving prison early.
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“This pain really never will go away,” he writes. “We learn somehow to live with it, but when so-called Canadian justice lets this happen the healing stops.”
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Kimberly’s aunt Jo-Anne Landolt told Global News Wednesday she and her family feel like they’re going backwards.
“It sets us back as a family and as a community,” she said. “It sets us back emotionally and mentally.
“It’s not fair. It’s retraumatizing us again and again.”
The details of Kimberly’s murder were also shared in court during Moffat and Wellwood’s trials and sentencing, where B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Johnston said he had trouble putting what happened to Kimberly into words.
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“The circumstances of this murder as admitted by the young persons are so horrific that no words can adequately convey the inhumane cruelty these young men showed Ms. Proctor,” he told the court.
Proctor wrote in his post that those details should be enough to keep the killers behind bars.
“If people knew exactly what was read aloud in court, only then could we possibly raise enough outrage to incarcerate people for life, not the so-called life sentences of this broken penal system,” he wrote.
Legal experts say with credit for time served before trial, offenders can seek early day parole — but that doesn’t mean it will be granted.
“Once you become eligible to apply for parole or day parole, you can make the application,” criminal lawyer Kyla Lee of Acumen Law said. “Even if there’s not a chance in heck you’re gonna get out.”
In a statement, the office of Canada’s Minister of Public Safety said no one can imagine the absolute horror Proctor’s family has gone through.
It added the law determining day parole eligibility dates for young offenders sentenced to life imprisonment has been in place since at least 2002 – and the “eligibility is absolutely not automatic” and that “protecting Canadians is the top consideration in all Parole Board decisions.”
“Victim statements and requests are an important part of the parole process … the Board makes a decision and imposes conditions designed to minimize the likelihood of reoffending.”
Landolt said the family knows Wellwood is “not going to get day parole on his first try for sure.”
But Proctor is demanding change as he and his family prepare to tolerate many more parole applications from the two killers in the years ahead.
“The victim’s survivors ultimately serve the life sentences in Canada,” he wrote.
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