ABBOTSFORD, B.C. — A drunk driver who killed RCMP Const. Sarah Beckett in a crash has been granted limited day parole to attend alcohol abuse treatment.
Kenneth Fenton was handed a four-year prison sentence in July 2017 and his first parole hearing was held today at a medium-security prison in Abbotsford, B.C.
Fenton told a parole board panel that driving drunk was the “most devastating decision” he has ever made and he understands it’s unfair that he’s still here while an “innocent mother” can’t go home to her children.
Parole Board of Canada member Catherine Dawson told Fenton that he still struggles with being honest and she’s concerned that it took him so long to realize that he’s an alcoholic.
She and another board member decided to allow Fenton to go to a treatment centre in the Fraser Valley to complete a program lasting about 70 days, before he returns to prison and the board decides next his steps.
Beckett, a 32-year-old mother of two boys, had recently returned from maternity leave when she was killed in the Victoria suburb of Langford in April 2016.
Fenton’s trial heard that his truck was travelling at up to 90 kilometres an hour when it rammed Beckett’s RCMP cruiser at an intersection.
The court heard that he was speeding away from another police cruiser that had just turned on its lights to pull him over seconds before the crash.