A Calgary man who strangled his wife and concealed her body in a basement wall of their home is going back to prison because he broke terms of his day parole by being involved with a sex worker.
The Parole Board of Canada made the decision after a hearing Tuesday in Red Deer, Alta., where Allan Shyback was requesting full parole.
Shyback was convicted of manslaughter and causing an indignity to a body in the 2012 death of Lisa Mitchell. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, but the Alberta Court of Appeal later increased the term to 10 years.
Shyback had been granted day parole in February.
The board said Shyback breached some terms of his release by concealing his relationship with a sex worker at a massage parlour and for reaching out to another woman on the dating app Tinder.
“This has been a difficult hearing for the board. We find that while there has been some progress, there are some grave concerns,” said one of the board members.
“The level of deceit outweighs the progress you have made. We are directing revoking your release.”
One of the requirements of his partial freedom was that Shyback inform his parole officer about any relationships with women. A number of sex toys were also found in his room.
He told the parole board he didn’t realize he was in violation and, when asked, was forthcoming about what he was doing.
“It was a mistake on my part. It was a desire for human contact … (after) five years in jail. I was lonely.”
Shyback was taken into custody at the end of the hearing.
He testified at his trial that he endured years of domestic abuse by his wife and had killed her in self-defence when she attacked him with a knife.
He said he panicked, put her body inside a plastic bin and cemented it into a basement wall of their home. He told Mitchell’s family that she had left and he sent them fake messages from her as he continued to live in the home with their two children.
“It was probably one of the most horrible things I could have done. I have no excuse for anything I did. It was horrible,” Shyback said.
“It was the fear of losing my children, the fear of them losing both their parents at once.”
The victim’s mother, Peggy Mitchell, addressed the hearing and asked that the board reject Shyback’s request for full parole.
“I know him as a liar, a thief and a killer,” Mitchell said.
“He is playing a game trying to get out. I will never forgive him. He doesn’t deserve a life. Why should he be free?”