Richard Joyce, a Kingston man who has been behind bars for decades after committing heinous crimes in the early 1990s, is applying for parole.
One of Joyce’s victims is speaking out ahead of his upcoming parole hearing.
“I think a life sentence should be a life sentence,” says Kerri Kehoe, one of Joyce’s victims.
Kehoe was the third of three young girls who were kidnapped and brutally sexually assaulted by Joyce in the early 1990s.
30 years after the fact, with Joyce behind bars for sexual assault and a brazen murder he helped carry out just one year after he abducted Kehoe, he’s seeking full parole.
“It was a complete shock to me, I didn’t see it coming,” says Kehoe. “I have no memory that that was even a possibility.”
Despite this, it’s now been thrust back into the forefront of her life once again.
For the two decades after she was attacked by Joyce, Kehoe suppressed the memories, before coming forward in 2010 after DNA data pointed the finger at Joyce. Now, facing the possibility of Joyce rejoining society, Kehoe is doing her best to make sure everyone knows that this shouldn’t be allowed to happen.
“There isn’t anything in my lived experience, in my professional life or in my personal life, to say that he has been rehabilitated,” she says.
Just this week, Kehoe started a Facebook page that she’s using to post images and articles about Joyce and the atrocities he’s committed, as well as to remind people that this is the same person who’s being considered for parole.
“Mostly, the Facebook group is to share information to apply to the parole board, to attend the hearing that is coming up,” says Kehoe.
The date set for his parole hearing is in early September.
Kehoe says she’s connected with other victims of Joyce, namely the family of the two other young girls he abducted and tortured, and says that when the day comes in September, they’ll be attending the hearing together.