Randal Hopley, who abducted a three-year old by from his home in Sparwood, is appealing his seven-year prison sentence.
Hopley abducted Kienan Hebert from his bedroom in 2011. He was given six-years for kidnapping and one-year for breaking and entering.
After a four-day manhunt, one of the largest in the province’s history, Hopley returned the child to his home unharmed. The boy had been held in an abandoned cabin.
Hopley was arrested two days later near the Crowsnest Pass.
Hopley entered foster care when he was 10 and remained there until he was 19. While in foster care, he received many convictions for sexually assaulting children.
Assessments determined his IQ between 59 and 73. The IQ rate for a person of normal intelligence is around 100.
Hopley was assessed as an untreatable sexual deviant after his first conviction in 1985 when he was convicted of sexually assaulting a five-year old boy.
During a detention hearing in 1986, his case management team submitted a report to the National Parole Board saying he was unfit for psychological counseling due to limited mental abilities.
Hopley has not been designated as a dangerous offender, which would have given him an indefinite prison term without the chance to appeal. But, he has been designated a long-term offender, which means he will be supervised for 10-years following his release.
Psychiatrist J.A. Noone, who prepared a report for Hopley’s 1986 parole board hearing saying that he had little to no control over his impulses and requires consistent supervision. Hopley, then 21-years old, refused sex offender treatment.
Since the 1985 conviction, Hopely had been charged with a number of crimes in the Crowsnest Pass including a 2008 conviction for breaking and entering with the intent to abduct a 10-year old boy.