Court reduces sentence for Moncton Mountie killer Justin Bourque

A court has reduced the precedent-setting sentence of a New Brunswick man who fatally shot three Mounties in 2014.

A New Brunswick man who fatally shot three Mounties in Moncton in 2014 will now be able to apply for parole far sooner than the record-setting 75 years imposed by a judge after the triple slaying.

The New Brunswick Court of Appeal on Thursday reduced Justin Bourque's parole ineligibility period to 25 years.

It based its ruling on last year's Supreme Court of Canada decision involving Quebec City mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonnette, which struck down a law that made it possible for judges to extend parole ineligibility periods beyond 25 years for people convicted of multiple murders.

"The Supreme Court's decision in Bissonnette makes the sentence imposed on Mr. Bourque one that is neither permitted by law nor constitutional," New Brunswick's Court of Appeal said. It added that the ruling by the country's highest court is "binding on us" and governs the outcome of Bourque's appeal.

In August 2014, Bourque pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder after targeting RCMP officers on the night of June 4, 2014.

He was automatically sentenced to life in prison -- a minimum 25-year term. As well, the judge decided that under a 2011 law, the 25-year parole ineligibility period required for each first-degree murder conviction would be applied consecutively, meaning Bourque would have to wait 75 years before he could apply for parole.

At the time he was sentenced, it was the harshest penalty imposed by a Canadian court since 1962 -- the last time state-sanctioned executions were carried out.