Latest news with #RonaldDuckhorn
CBC
23-05-2025
- CBC
Vancouver police search for high-risk offender wanted Canada-wide
Vancouver police are searching for a high-risk offender who is wanted Canada-wide after failing to return to his halfway house. Johnny Walkus, 37, obtained statutory release from prison Thursday and was ordered to live at a halfway house in Vancouver. Police say he left shortly before 1:30 p.m. for a meeting with his parole officer, but didn't show up. Walkus is described as five feet eight inches tall with a heavy build, short black hair, brown eyes and "Johnny Cash" tattooed on his right forearm. He was last seen wearing a blue T-shirt, grey pants and dark shoes. Anyone who sees Walkus or has information on his whereabouts is asked to call 911. The search is one of several incidents this week involving a repeat offender in Vancouver. On Thursday, police sent out a news release saying they had arrested high-risk sex offender Randall Hopley, not long after he was released from prison the same day. Two days before that, on Tuesday, police said the suspect involved in an assault on the Vancouver seawall last month had been released from a medical facility, where he was under supervision, and will be living under house arrest in Vancouver. And on Monday, convicted sex offender Ronald Hartley Duckhorn, 35, was arrested and charged after a woman was attacked by a stranger in a Stanley Park bathroom. The latest charges against him have not been proven in court. Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim has called for "concrete action" from the provincial and federal governments around the incidents. "Law enforcement agencies have done their job in identifying suspects and making arrests, but the judicial system is repeatedly letting victims down by allowing those with a high risk to reoffend back into the public," Sim said on Thursday.
CBC
22-05-2025
- CBC
Vancouver mayor calling for 'concrete action' after 2 high-profile assaults in busy, public areas
WARNING: This story includes details of sexual assault and may affect readers who have experienced sexual violence or know someone who has. Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is calling for "concrete action" from the provincial and federal governments after two high-profile assaults in the city in recent weeks. Peterhans Nungu, 34, was arrested and charged with assault causing bodily harm, police said, in connection with an assault in Coal Harbour on April 15. On Tuesday, police said he was granted bail and released from police custody on April 23, but was transferred to a secure medical facility where he was under medical supervision. Police said he was released from the facility this week and will be living under house arrest in Vancouver. Meanwhile, convicted sex offender Ronald Hartley Duckhorn, 35, was arrested and charged after a woman was attacked, robbed and sexually assaulted by a stranger in a Stanley Park bathroom on Monday. The latest charges against Duckhorn have not been proven in court. His next scheduled appearance is May 23 in Vancouver provincial court. After Sim's plea went public, Vancouver police sent out a news release saying they had arrested high-risk sex offender Randall Hopley on Thursday, not long after he was released from prison. "Law enforcement agencies have done their job in identifying suspects and making arrests, but the judicial system is repeatedly letting victims down by allowing those with a high risk to reoffend back into the public," Sim said Thursday. "The public deserves an answer from Attorney General Niki Sharma on why this continues to happen." In an interview with CBC's T he Early Edition Thursday morning, Sharma said she's been trying to get the federal government on board with changes to the Criminal Code when it comes to repeat offenders. Changes to the Criminal Code went into effect in 2024 that aim to make it harder for people accused of violent crimes to be released if they have a history of serious and violent offences involving a weapon, and also in cases involving intimate partner violence. University of the Fraser Valley criminologist Amanda McCormick told CBC's BC Today host Michelle Eliot that because Canada's justice system moves so slowly, it's hard to know what kind of impact that change has had on public safety. "These days, we're seeing it takes a year, a couple of years, depending on the nature of the offence, before these cases go before court, so we just don't have that data at this point," she said. In 2023, B.C. launched the Repeat Violent Offending Intervention Initiative in several communities around the province, which brings together police, dedicated prosecutors and probation officers to provide early interventions in cases involving repeat violent offending and connect individuals with services that may help to break the cycle. But Sharma said it isn't enough, and that the law around repeat offenders needs to be even stronger. She said the province has ideas around how to accomplish this and will be presenting them to the feds, but did not specify what that might look like. Sharma said bail reform is "completely essential" when it comes to improving public safety across B.C. "When somebody is repeatedly breaching probation, repeatedly breaching court orders essentially ... in my view, there should be an escalation in detention and punishment for that individual instead of a repeated cycle of release," she said.
CBC
21-05-2025
- CBC
Convicted sex offender charged after woman assaulted in Stanley Park washroom
WARNING: This story includes details of sexual assault and may affect readers who have experienced sexual violence or know someone who has. Vancouver police say a man has been arrested and charged with multiple offences after a woman was attacked, robbed and sexually assaulted by a stranger in a Stanley Park bathroom on Monday. Ronald Hartley Duckhorn, 35, is facing one count each of assault by choking, sexual assault with a weapon, robbery and unlawful confinement. Duckhorn pleaded guilty to similar offences in Surrey in 2022 in relation to an attack of a woman in 2020 near the King George SkyTrain Station. On Monday, Vancouver police were alerted to an attack in a women's changing room near the Second Beach pool in Stanley Park after a witness saw what they described to police as a suspicious man entering the washroom around 11 a.m. Officers say they found a woman in her 40s who had been robbed and violently assaulted. She was later treated in hospital. In the Surrey incident, Duckhorn was convicted of sexual assault with a weapon, unlawful confinement and robbery. According to police reports at the time, the victim was walking under the SkyTrain line toward Fraser Highway when she was allegedly approached by a man with a weapon and robbed of her belongings, before being pulled into the bushes and sexually assaulted. According to the B.C. Prosecution Service, Duckhorn was handed a global sentence of five and a half years in prison, which included a credit of three years, three months and 10 days for time served and an additional two years, two months and 20 days in prison. He was also ordered to provide a DNA sample and put on the national sex offender registry. The latest charges against Duckhorn have not been proven in court. His next scheduled appearance is May 23 in Vancouver provincial court. He remains in custody pending a bail hearing. According to online court records, Duckhorn has previous criminal convictions for unrelated robbery and break and enter offences.
