The Red Deer RCMP are warning the public about the release onto our streets of a dangerous sex offender, James Hill. He has a lengthy criminal history of sex crimes against young females and reportedly is at high risk to re-offend, and poses a considerable threat in the community.
It is an extreme lapse of the travesty of justice when a judicial system sets out to protect the criminal rather than the victim. It has been pointed out that, because of the extremely high recidivism rate of such deplorable crimes, dangerous sex offenders should be jailed for life.
What sort of message is being sent out to other habitual dangerous sex offenders who have been waiting in the wings to see the outcome of another of their ilk who has so offended in the past?
Police says Hill poses considerable threat in our community. He is to abide by a six-month probation period to prevent him from going to parks and pools where there are kids under 14, from working with children, and from preventing him from communicating with children over the Internet. Are taxpayers to pay for a 24-hour vigilance watching over Hill? With his picture in the Advocate and online, he’s probably long gone from Red Deer .
We are unlike the U.S., where sex offenders registries are available at all times online. They are meant to allow the public to find the location of dangerous sex offenders.
A brief sample of information for the registry list is:
• Name of anybody convicted as a dangerous sex offender;
• Any change in the residence of such an offender, regardless of where the conviction occurred;
• The whereabouts of such a convict who moves to a new local for the purpose of employment, or for any other reason, for a period exceeding l4 days;
• Any person who harbors a dangerous sex offender in helping him to elude a law enforcement officer is guiltily of an offence;
• All those registered are to pay a $250 registration fee annually.
Surely repeat dangerous sex offenders in Canada aren’t escaping life sentences because the jails are overcrowded. A life sentence just might be a good deterrent.
Audrey Jensen
Red Deer