Falcon bows out of next election page 3
Winning silver at Canada Cup page 29
Thursday August 30, 2012 Serving Surrey and North Delta www.surreyleader.com
Judge questions whether abuse would have continued if Ron Bencze wasn’t caught
Ready to roll
Ex-reporter jailed 4 years for child sex assault
New Invergarry Bike Park in North Surrey launches Sept. 1 by Evan Seal
S
by Sheila Reynolds FAMILY AND FRIENDS of a boy who was sexually assaulted by
Surrey’s Ron Bencze cheered, gasped and broke down in tears when the former TV reporter was handed four years in a federal prison by a provincial court judge Tuesday morning. Bencze, wearing a burgundy dress shirt and black tie, gave a small smile and wave to his wife and other family members as he was led into custody by sheriffs. The defence had requested a conditional sentence between 18 months and two years. The Crown had asked for two to three years in jail – a request Judge Robin Baird deemed too “lenient� before imposing the longer, four-year prison sentence. Last month, the 45-year-old Bencze pleaded guilty to molesting the boy, who is now a teen, between March 2003 and December 2010, when the child was between the ages of six and 14. It was January 2011, when the victim was 14, that his mom discovered sexually explicit text messages between her son and Bencze Ron Bencze and promptly called police. Bencze, a married father of three, was arrested shortly thereafter. The families were close friends. There is a publication ban on any information that would identify the boy. In delivering the four-year jail sentence in Surrey Provincial Court, Judge Baird referred to the sexual assault as “deviant and unlawful� behaviour for which Bencze should pay a hefty price. He said the victim’s childhood had been “blighted, if not outright stolen.� The judge said Bencze’s actions were extremely difficult to understand and pointed to interviews he had with a psychiatrist just a few months ago in which he seemed to idealize the boy and See BENCZE / Page 3
EVAN SEAL / THE LEADER
Derek Prost (left) and Jordan Proctor are members of Dirt West, a mountain biking group which has helped turn Invergarry Park in North Surrey into a mountain biking hub.
Editorial 6 Letters 7 Sports 29 People 35 ClassiďŹ eds 39
We’re speechless. But grateful.
A
ince 2008, two local mountain biking enthusiasts have had a dream. After spending the day mountain biking on the North Shore a few years ago, Derek Kost and friend Jason Proctor were on their way home talking about how convenient it would be to have a place to ride in and around the Surrey area that could rival some of the great riding terrain found in other parts of Metro Vancouver. Kost remembered a large wooded area he had ridden through in the past and suggested he take Proctor on a tour of the overgrown green space located north of 108 Avenue between Surrey Drive (148 Street) and 143A Street. The space was known as Invergarry Park. The area was once used as a dump site for construction materials and had been largely left in disrepair – essentially a collection of walking trails covered in blackberry bushes and fastgrowing weeds. But the two men knew they had found a diamond in the rough, and with the help from a group of volunteers
See PARK / Page 9
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