Tuesday September 30 , 2014 (Vol. 39 No. 78)
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
A N D
S O U T H
S U R R E Y
w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m
Eagles grounded: The Surrey Eagles are still looking for their first win of the new BC Hockey League season, after losing three times – once in double-overtime – on the weekend. i see page 21
Monitoring convicts after prison viewed as integral to ensuring safety
‘We must keep our daughters safe’ Jeff Nagel Black Press
Boaz Joseph photo
Community rallies in Newton on Sunday.
B.C. Attorney General Suzanne Anton says she is in discussions with federal Justice Minister Peter McKay on potential ways to tighten monitoring of released high-risk criminals in the wake of the murder of Surrey teen Serena Vermeersch. Expanded use of electronic monitoring “is something that probably should be considered,� Anton told reporters last week after the arrest of convicted rapist
Raymond Lee Caissie on Sept. 20, four days after Vermeersch’s body was found. Now charged with second-degree murder, 43-yearold Caissie was released from prison last year after serving a 22-year sentence for a violent sexual assault and robbery in 1991. The parole board repeatedly refused to grant early release, citing a high risk to reoffend and seriously harm or kill someone. “He was identified publicly as being a violent sexual offender,� Anton said, noting Caissie has been
under police surveillance since his release. “Everybody who was involved took this case and this person very seriously. Whether or not there are more things that could be put in place – that’s a question I’ve raised with the federal minister.� Asked if the province adequately funds its Integrated Sexual Predator Observation Team, Anton responded: “They are resourced. They don’t watch the person 100 per cent of the time. i see page 2
Victim speaks out
Held captive Kevin Diakiw
B Black Press
oth eyes badly blackened and lacerated from his punches, she lay crouched in the car in the fenced-in parking lot on Annacis Island. As darkness fell, the temperature in the car dropped, and her body and mind became numb. The only sound she could hear was the incessant thrum of nearby refrigerator trucks. She once again wondered how she was going to escape, or whether she would even live to try. Evan Seal photo More than once, suicide seemed Robin Brown returns to the Annacis Island parking lot where she was kept locked in a car for 16 nights while her then-boyfriend worked. like the only solution. “I thought that was my only way controlling already,â€? she says softly. head open at the temple. He took Nanaimo. He snuck Brown into the way around the eight-foot barbedout,â€? says Robin Brown, now 48. At the start, Recknagel insisted her cellphone, her computer, her home while his mother slept, and wire fence. He threatened to find ••• she text him all day, and accused purse, then wrote an email to her kept her there around the clock. her and beat her senseless. Brown, a weightlifter and her of lying – particularly about boss saying she quit and deleted Recknagel told Brown if she Brown learned not to eat or amateur boxer, met Matthew any dealings she had with men. her email and Facebook accounts. tried to contact police, she’d be drink before the nightly 10 hours Recknagel in 2011 at the gym On Oct. 17, 2013 she told him Brown felt paralyzed with fear, dead. He called in sick from his of confinement, as there was where she worked out. she was going on a and thought refusing his demands delivery dispatch job for several nowhere to relieve herself. As a Nineteen years â??I’m embarrassed business trip with her could be fatal. days to keep tabs on her. When he result, she lost 30 pounds. younger, he was good that I went through boss at the vitamin Court documents show On Oct. 24, 2013, while driving returned to his night shift at work, looking, charming, this, because I company where she Recknagel kept Brown confined to dinner, he began beating her he took Brown with him. smart and made her in his Chrysler 300 at his place of about the back and shoulders. She Recknagel took Brown’s wallet, laugh. He was a body saw the signs.â?ž worked. He forbade work for 16 nights. it, but she insisted. He rolled down the window, called for identification and keys; he had builder and mixed On Nov. 28, she overheard him punched her in her left eye. help and tried to jump out of the everything that belonged to her. martial artist and they began receive a call that he would have Days later, she sent Recknagel a moving vehicle. He pulled her back He told her she had to stay in training together. to drive delivery, meaning he text message: “We’re done.â€? in and punched her in the face. the car’s front seat, hidden under In September 2013, they went would be away from the car. The He initially agreed but let himself At the time, Recknagel was a white wool blanket. She was told out for coffee and started seeing into her house and told her she serving a term at his mother’s the car door was alarmed and if she next day was a chance – possibly each other. However, Brown soon her only one – to escape. could not break up with him. He home in Langley for uttering tried to escape, Recknagel would sensed something was amiss –“I i see page 4 punched her right eye, splitting her threats and assault of a woman in know before she could navigate her could tell he was starting to be
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