Serial killer Clifford Olson

[Archer]

Tuesday, Jul 18, 2006

Serial killer Clifford Olson would kill again if free: parole board

STE-ANNE-DES-PLAINES, Que. (CP) - Gary Rosenfeldt found it difficult just being in the same room as Clifford Olson, the self-styled Beast of British Columbia who murdered his stepson and 10 other young people.

"What goes through your mind is those are the hands that held the hammer that smashed your son's head in," Rosenfeldt, whose stepson Daryn Johnsrude was Olson's third victim, said Tuesday after National Parole Board officials rejected the killer's bid for freedom.

"It's not an easy thing to do to sit and look at that."

Olson, who has served 25 years of a life sentence for the murders of 11 young people in British Columbia, appeared before a parole board panel at a prison north of Montreal.

He looked dishevelled and was bald with a wild fringe of long greying hair.

Observers watching the hearing via closed-circuit television could hear sobs from family members as they struggled through their statements.

"It has been 25 years that my sister was taken from us and not a day goes by that we don't think about it," Darylene Perry, whose 13-year-old sister Ada Court was killed, told the board.

"I don't think you should ever live a day beyond prison walls," she told Olson.

Parole officials took only about a half an hour to deny Olson parole, saying he poses a "clear and present danger" to the public.

The three-member board agreed with recommendations by correctional staff that Olson will surely murder again if released.

Citing recommendations from correctional staff, board member Jacques Letendre said the risk posed by Olson hasn't diminished in 25 years behind bars.

"Mr. Olson presents a high risk and a psychopathic risk," Letendre said. "He is a sexual sadist and a narcissist.

"The (correctional team) believes that if released, he will kill again."

British Columbia's solicitor general called the hearing "a charade" that should never be repeated.

[Guest SouthernCelt]

I think Canada needs to go back to capital punishment, then you wouldn't have to deal with such as this for a whole lifetime.

[Archer]

I agree!!!