Psychiatric assessments show B.C. child abductor considered a danger decades ago

CRANBROOK, B.C. – Even as a teenager, psychiatric assessments of child abductor Randall Hopley concluded he was likely to continue to offend.

The assessments were done 30 years ago, when Hopley was 17 years old, after three children at his foster home were sexually assaulted.

The assessments were presented today in a Cranbrook, B.C., court, where the Crown is asking that Hopley be labelled a dangerous offender for the abduction of three-year-old Kienan (KEE-nun) Hebert from his Sparwood, B.C., home in September 2011.

The boy was returned — seemingly unharmed — a few days after the abduction.

The assessments also noted the 47-year-old man’s future prospects were bleak and he had limited intelligence, operating at a level equal to a child in Grade 3.

Two retired RCMP officers testified at the hearing that they arrested Hopley in 1985 for sexually assaulting a five-year-old boy to which Hopley eventually confessed.