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Randall Hopley called a “danger to society” in 1985 psychologist report

At best, psychiatric reports described Hopley as a “dishevelled, sulky young man”; at worst, he is a danger to society.
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Randall Hopley is escorted into Cranbrook Court

Randall Hopley was described as a narcissist with a deficient social conscience and a danger to society in a psychiatric assessment dating back to 1985, when he was 20 years old.

Now 48, Hopley has pleaded guilty to the abduction in September 2011 of three-year-old Kienan Hebert in Sparwood.

The boy was returned home apparently unharmed, four days after he was taken from his bed in the middle of the night.

This week, Hopley is the subject of a dangerous offender hearing in Cranbrook Supreme Court, a continuation of the sentencing hearing that began in July 2012.

Justice Heather Holmes will decide whether Hopley should be considered a dangerous offender. This status would give Hopley an indeterminate prison sentence within a minimum period of seven years before parole.

The dangerous offender hearing reconvened Tuesday, October 8 after Hopley was given a pass Monday to attend his mother’s funeral in Fernie.

In Tuesday’s evidence, Crown prosecutor Lynal Doerksen presented several reports prepared on Hopley after he sexually assaulted a five-year-old boy in Hosmer in 1985.

In the first report, prepared by psychiatrist Dr. Philip Adilman in 1985, Hopley is described as “borderline retarded”. The report stated Hopley minimized his involvement in sexual assaults and experienced no significant remorse or insight into how to change his behaviour. Hopley is likely to reoffend without consistent treatment over a significant amount of time, the report continued.

In another report, also from 1985, psychologist Dr. William Koch describes Hopley as both a “dishevelled, sulky young man” and a danger to society with an absence of any remorse, deep resentment of authority figures and as being highly resistant to attempts to regulate his behaviour.

Hopley was in prison from 1985 to 1987 for the Hosmer sexual assault. When he sought parole during that period, Corrections Services prepared reports stating that he had “done very little to gain an understanding of his offences”.

Corrections Services staff said Hopley was in desperate need of treatment for his “sexual problem”, but he had not sought that treatment while in custody.

Hopley, who has an IQ of 65, did not register the seriousness of his offenses, the reports stated.

On Monday, the court heard that by the age of 17, Hopley had already been involved in three sexual assaults in his foster home, and had a history of starting fires.

The sentencing hearing for Randall Hopley continues in Cranbrook Supreme Court tomorrow, when a psychiatric assessment performed last year will be presented.