Close X
Thursday, November 14, 2024
ADVT 
National

Wanted sex offender Randall Hopley arrested in Vancouver, police say

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 14 Nov, 2023 10:44 AM
  • Wanted sex offender Randall Hopley arrested in Vancouver, police say

Vancouver police say the 10-day manhunt for high-risk sex offender Randall Hopley ended outside a police station when he was recognized and arrested by an off-duty officer.

Sgt. Steve Addison says the "intense focus" on Hopley's whereabouts led to his arrest this morning and police will make recommendations through Crown counsel that he be denied bail and remain in custody.

Addison says Hopley was captured outside the police station in the Downtown Eastside, not far from where he went missing.

Hopley walked away from his Vancouver halfway house on Nov. 4., and cut off his electronic monitoring device a short time later.

At the time, police said they believed the 58-year-old was worried about an upcoming court appearance and feared he would be returned to custody.

Hopley had completed a six-year prison term for the 2011 abduction of a three-year-old boy in southeastern B.C.

He was released in 2018 and was living at the halfway house under a 10-year long-term supervision order but was arrested in January for allegedly violating conditions of the order.

Addison told a news conference that there was "very real fear" in the community while Hopley was at large, and concern about the case had the potential to change the way such offenders are monitored.

He couldn't say whether Hopley was intending to turn himself in at the time of his arrest by the officer, who was in plain clothes.

"I'm not gonna speculate on what Randall Hopley's intentions were," Addison said, adding that "he likely ran out of options."

Addison said up to 25 full-time investigators worked the case while Hopley was at large, supported by dozens of other officers.

He said there were more than 80 tips from the public, involving a time-consuming checking process.

It was believed that Hopley had been travelling alone, Addison said, and may have been trying to change his appearance with "COVID-style masks" that he had on him when he was arrested.

Addison said police did not believe Hopley committed any new offences while at large.

 

MORE National ARTICLES

4 year prison sentence for Kelowna robber

4 year prison sentence for Kelowna robber
A man who held up a bank in Kelowna and fled with more than 40-thousand-dollars in cash has been sentenced to four years in prison. Alan Stuart Metcalfe was sentenced in August after pleading guilty to one count of robbery, and the decision was released online this week.  

4 year prison sentence for Kelowna robber

Series of fires outside Mission

Series of fires outside Mission
The Mounties say police and firefighters responded Wednesday evening to a report of a structure fire on a vacant property along Gunn Avenue and found several buildings on fire, with indications that the blazes had been set intentionally. They say police responded to flames on a different property along the same road yesterday and again found they appeared to have been sparked intentionally.

Series of fires outside Mission

B.C. COVID-19 hospitalizations up 58% in two weeks, as infections, deaths also spike

B.C. COVID-19 hospitalizations up 58% in two weeks, as infections, deaths also spike
COVID-19 cases are on the rise in British Columbia, with the BC Centre for Disease Control reporting hospitalizations have increased 58 per cent in the past two weeks. The centre says in its latest update that deaths due to COVID-19 are also trending upwards, with 24 fatalities in the last week of September, compared to nine in the second week of August. 

B.C. COVID-19 hospitalizations up 58% in two weeks, as infections, deaths also spike

Spike in Vancouver's homeless count

Spike in Vancouver's homeless count
The count by the Homelessness Services Association of B-C was done on March 7th and 8th -- and identified just under five thousand people in 11 communities, up from the roughly 36-hundred identified in the March 2020 count.

Spike in Vancouver's homeless count

Surrey business community grapples with police tax

Surrey business community grapples with police tax
Business leaders in Surrey are pleading with the province to provide a clear plan as the city grapples with the next stage of implementing a new police force. The Surrey Board of Trade has sent a letter to Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth saying the city needs a solid policing strategy with adequate wraparound support services and infrastructure as it juggles the costs of the outgoing R-C-M-P and incoming Surrey Police Service.

Surrey business community grapples with police tax

B.C. sets out law to ban use of illegal drugs in many public places

B.C. sets out law to ban use of illegal drugs in many public places
British Columbia is setting out new rules as it attempts to navigate a way to curb the overdose crisis with drug decriminalization. Possession of small amounts of many illicit drugs was decriminalized in B.C. in January after the federal government issued an exemption, but legislation introduced by the province today would make their use illegal in many public spaces. 

B.C. sets out law to ban use of illegal drugs in many public places