Repeat B.C. offender pleads guilty to sexually assaulting person under 16
CBC
A repeat offender has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a person under 16 years of age at a Kelowna, B.C., equestrian facility earlier this year.
Taylor Dueck, whom parole board documents show had a disturbing history of sexual offences against children, pleaded guilty on Monday to an assault that happened on Feb. 9.
Dueck, 30, also pleaded guilty to breaching probation orders, with a charge of invitation to sexual touching against him being stayed by prosecutors.
The assault at the equestrian facility prompted major safety concerns, especially as Kelowna RCMP did not issue a public notification that a high-risk sex offender was living in the area.
Dueck has been sentenced to two years, less a day, of jail. After credit for pre-trial detention, he will serve 240 days in prison.
He will also be under 24/7 house arrest as part of a three-year probation period following his prison sentence, and he will be on the sex offenders' registry for life.
There was outrage in February that Mounties did not provide a public interest warning over Dueck's presence in the Kelowna area, which police are allowed to do under the Privacy Act of Canada if offenders are deemed a risk to reoffend.
The Parole Board of Canada had ruled in October 2022 that Dueck had a "high risk to reoffend" against both strangers and acquaintances, particularly those he considered vulnerable to his advances.
At the time, Dueck was applying for day parole and full parole while serving a sentence for sexually interfering with a 10-year-old child, according to the parole decision.
The parole board noted Dueck committed the crime less than two months after he was released from prison in 2020, after completing a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon.
At the time, both Mission Police and Abbotsford Police issued public warnings about his risk of reoffending.
In February, following the equestrian facility assault, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth ordered an investigation into why Kelowna RCMP hadn't issued a notification in Dueck's case.
In a written statement, the Kelowna RCMP said at the time that it sought a public disclosure order prior to Dueck's release, but "the threshold was not met in this case based on the totality of the circumstances."
CBC News has contacted the lawyer who has previously represented Dueck, as well as the Public Safety Ministry for an update on that investigation.
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