Tuesday
December 24, 2013 (Vol. 38 No. o. 103)
Home for the holidays: South Surrey’s Susan Wheeler has as created a winter wonderland inside her home – including a colour-co-ordinated tree for each room, as well as Dickenss houses that tell a Christmas tale.. i see page e 12
w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m
Psychological testing indicated Kraus – convicted in 2005 – was at low risk to reoffend
Ex-teacher admits to child porn again Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
A former Semiahmoo Peninsula teacher who pleaded guilty in 2005 to collecting images of exploited children has admitted to once again possessing illicit material. George Heinz Kraus pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in Surrey Pro-
vincial Court Thursday morning. The plea was entered less than three weeks before the White Rock senior was scheduled to be tried on charges of possessing and accessing child pornography. The charges arose after officers with the Integrated Child Exploitation Unit executed a search warrant on a White Rock home
in June 2012, following a tip “suggesting (Kraus) was in possession of child-pornography material,” Staff Sgt. Bev Csikos told Peace Arch News in February. The tip came from another agency, and a police investigation in another jurisdiction is ongoing, Csikos said. Kraus taught at White Rock Elementary
for 13 years and was in his second year at Laronde Elementary when he resigned in March 2005, shortly after his arrest that month for possession of child pornography. That arrest followed the discovery of some 27,000 images on two home computers. In that case, Kraus was handed a 14-month i see page 4
Repeated thefts
Pay-park machines a ‘hot’ item at bus loop Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Glimpse of winter
Eileen Jarrett photo
Visitors to White Rock’s promenade and pier were treated to the seaside city’s first major snowfall of the season Friday. A thick blanket of snow covered much of the Semiahmoo Peninsula with flakes falling throughout the afternoon. See page 4 for more photographs from around the area.
Three suspects and victim all known to police
Man’s hand broken in ‘targeted’ attack A targeted assault at a South Surrey home last week ended with one man taken to hospital with a broken hand. Cpl. Bert Paquet said the baseball-bat attack was reported by the 27-year-old victim’s girlfriend Wednesday at 6:20 p.m. It occurred in the 16500-block of 24 Avenue.
Paquet said there were three alleged assailants, although the degree of each one’s involvement in the incident has not been clarified. The attackers are known to the victim, and all four men are known to police, he said. Paquet said police have spoken with one of the accused so far and charges are anticipated.
However, “it’s too early to say at this point who will be charged with what.” As of Peace Arch News’ deadline Friday, no arrests had been made. “We’re satisfied it was a targeted assault and that the general public is not at risk,” Paquet said. – Tracy Holmes
Officials in charge of the South Surrey Park & Ride are taking steps to make the lot’s new pay stations less palatable to robbers, following a rash of thefts. The machines were taken on three separate occasions in the first 2½ weeks of this month – Dec. 10, 12 and 15 – all around 3 a.m. TransLink media liaison Jiana Ling said Thursday that revenue loss due to the thefts “is not believed to be significant.” TransLink is working with Impark – which manages operations for the lot – to address the problem, she said. One step will be to relocate the pay stations – which were installed when pay parking went into effect early last month – to a more central location at the bus loop, where there are “more eyes.” RCMP have been advised, and transit security has bumped up its patrols, Ling said, noting, “We’re looking at various options to mitigate future occurrences of this.” Impark spokesman Julian Jones said additional measures are planned that “we’d rather not make public.” i see page 4
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