Vernon sex offender’s conviction quashed over ‘community centre’ definition

A Vernon sex offender bound by a court order not to go anywhere children might be present has had a conviction overturned after an appeal judge ruled a hockey rink parking lot couldn’t be considered a community centre.

BC Supreme Court Justice Gary Weatherill ruled that sex offender Elden Robert Caldwell hadn’t breached a protection order that barred him from going to community centres, because the parking lot of Kal Tire Place couldn’t be considered a community centre.

“To interpret the parking lot to have been a ‘community centre’… when Mr. Caldwell drove into it, would be too broad,” Justice Weatherill said in an April 30 decision. “I interpret the phrase ‘community centre’ as meaning a place where children are likely to congregate while engaging in child-focused recreational and educative activities and is meant to include locations where child focused activities are taking place.”

In 2020, Caldwell was convicted of invitation to sexual touching and put on a 20-year-long protection order prohibiting him from attending any public park, school ground, daycare centre, public swimming area, playground or community centre.

However, in July 2025, he was arrested in his vehicle in the parking of Kal Tire Place in Vernon.

He was charged and convicted for breaching the protection order after Crown prosecutors successfully argued the large parking lot was a “community centre” and Caldwell was forbidden to go there.

He was sentenced to eight months in jail, which, after getting credit for time served already in custody, saw him get an extra nine days in jail.

However, Caldwell appealed, arguing the parking lot wasn’t a community centre.

“There is no debate that Mr. Caldwell intended to drive into the parking lot. The issue is, in the circumstances, did he subjectively know that, at the time he did so, he would be ‘attending’ a community centre,” the decision reads.

Caldwell argued that whether an area can be considered a ‘community centre’ varies by context and the circumstances of each case.

“If, for example, the parking lot was being used on the date of the offence to host an event set aside for the recreation and play of children, he agrees that the meaning of ‘community centre’ could include the Parking Lot,” the Justice said.

On the day of his arrest, the parking lot was largely empty, apart from an off-duty police officer learning to ride a motorcycle.

It was the off-duty police officer who spotted Caldwell and arrested him.

Caldwell, who is in his early 30s has a lengthy criminal history that started when he was a youth and includes convictions for uttering threats, obstructing a peace officer, assault with a weapon, personation with intent to avoid arrest, escaping lawful custody, break and enter, flight from police, providing false or misleading information, invitation to sexual touching and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.