The National Parole Board (NPB) has suspended the unescorted temporary absences (UTAs) it had approved for an Abbotsford sex offender last May.
According to NPB documents, James Douglas Campbell, 59, breached a condition that he abstain from alcohol. He was out of prison on a UTA on Sept. 9, when a parole officer who was checking up on him at an undisclosed location smelled alcohol on his breath.
Police were called to the scene, and a breath sample confirmed that Campbell’s blood alcohol level was 0.018. He was then returned to the minimum-security jail and was later transferred to a medium-security prison.
The NPB held a hearing and the decision was made on Jan. 13 to revoke Campbell’s passes. When they were first approved, he was permitted up to three 12-hour visits over the first two months at the home of his wife.
The length of the visits progressed to two 24-hour periods during the third and fourth months, and 72 hours per month after that.
At the NPB hearing, Campbell’s case management team recommended his passes be revoked because his alcohol consumption was “indicative of an increase in (his) risk to public safety.”
Campbell is currently serving a 24-year sentence which began Dec. 3, 1990 for sexual offences against three girls – ages 12, nine and seven. He abducted one of them off the street while she was on her way to school.
His statutory release date is May 11, 2011. Under federal law, most inmates must be released after serving two-thirds of their sentences, but they can be granted day or full parole before that.
In 2004, Campbell went on the lam from an Abbotsford home while on day parole. He was later arrested in Falkland in the Okanagan after he had broken into several cabins to steal food.
His parole was revoked, and Campbell’s request for day and full parole were denied in July 2008.
At the time Campbell’s UTAs were granted in May 2010, the son of Campbell’s 90-year-old wife expressed concern about his mom’s safety. The couple were married in March 2010.