Provincial posted May 23, 2025 @ 06:00am by Canadian Press

Sex offender Randall Hopley re-arrested in BC on same day he was freed from prison

Vancouver police have re-arrested high-risk sex offender Randall Hopley, on the same day that he was released from prison.

Police say Hopley had been released from Mission Institution on Thursday morning and ordered to live at a Vancouver halfway house.

But he is alleged to have refused the directions of his parole officer and left the halfway house.

Police say Hopley was arrested after a Canada-wide warrant was issued, and he remains in custody.

<who> Photo credit: Canadian Press

Hopley obtained statutory release after being sentenced last May to 29 months in jail, minus credit for time served, having pleaded guilty to breaching conditions of a long-term supervision order on two occasions.

He previously completed a six-year prison term for the 2011 abduction of a three-year-old boy in southeastern B.C.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said he was “deeply disappointed” that the Correctional Service of Canada did not provide notification of Hopley’s release, particularly in the neighbourhood where he was sent to live.

He said at an unrelated news conference in Yellowknife, where he was attending the western premiers conference, that public confidence in the justice system is “being tested right now.”

“We need the federal government to step up and ensure that things like this can't happen. It just doesn't make any sense to anybody.”

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