Mission Council to call for relocation of newly arrived pedophile
Posted August 2, 2016 7:22 am.
Last Updated August 12, 2016 2:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
MISSION (NEWS 1130) – A high risk sex offender has moved to Mission, prompting that district to scramble to find a way to get him out of town. That starts with a council meeting set for tonight where it will try to determine the best way to make that happen.
There are two key points Mayor Randy Hawes is making as he argues James Conway shouldn’t live in Mission.
One, smaller communities don’t have the same police resources as cities for monitoring sex offenders upon their release. “We don’t have the capacity here that bigger cities do,” says Hawes. “I know I’m going to be talking to my fellow mayors in the Fraser Valley about this and suggest that we together approach corrections, both provincial and federal, to tell them this is not the behaviour we want from senior levels of government.”
And two, Hawes suggests cities are a more anonymous environment for a man like Conway to rebuild his life. “We have a community now that is outraged, that is frightened,” says Hawes. “Mothers are frightened. I have small grandchildren. I can totally understand their fear. Why would corrections turn a small community like this into a place that’s full of fear and full of hatred? This is not good.”
“I would suggest, for his own safety, and the safety of the community, he should want to go somewhere where nobody knows who he is, and number two, maybe behind locked bars where he’s under 24-hour surveillance, he’s going to be monitored electronically, and he cannot go out without supervision. And his face now, I’m sure every mother in this community is going to show that face to their young children to say, ‘watch out for this guy.’
“Every mother and every father are going to memorize that face. He can’t go out in the city. He may as well be in jail.”
Conway has been convicted three times for sex crimes against children, and arrived in Mission on Sunday after previously living in Abbotsford.
BC Corrections says he will be under 24-hour surveillance and can’t leave his home unsupervised.
“BC Corrections will work closely with the Mission RCMP and our partner agencies to diligently monitor and strictly enforce Mr. Conway’s court-ordered conditions. Any breach of conditions can result in an offender returning to custody,” says the agency’s Amy Lapsley.
