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MP calls for federal review after B.C. serial killer downgraded to medium-security prison

Cody Legebokoff, found guilty in the deaths of four women, has been transferred to a facility in Ontario
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Cody Legebokoff was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in 2014, for the first degree murders of four women between 2009 and 2010.

A B.C. MP has asked the federal government to review why serial killer Cody Legebokoff was transferred from a maximum-security prison in this province to a medium-security jail in Ontario.

Cody Legebokoff was sentenced in 2014 to life behind bars with no chance of parole for 25 years for the first-degree murders of four women between 2009 and 2010 in Prince George. The victims were Loren Leslie, Jill Stuchenko, Cynthia Maas and Natasha Montgomery.

During debate in the House of Commons on solitary confinement in prisons on Friday, Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty said Legebokoff’s transfer by Correctional Services Canada was made “without acknowledgement or notification to two of the four victims’ families.”

Two kids wear signs depicting Natasha Montgomery, who went missing in Prince George in 2010. Cody Legebokoff was convicted of her murder, along with the murders of three others, in 2014. (Black Press Media files)


The Conservative MP added that Legebokoff, originally from Vanderhoof, has never admitted guilt nor disclosed the location of the victims’ remains.

He said he’s the type of offender, akin to Robert Pickton, Paul Bernardo and Clifford Olson, who are in solitary confinement not only for the protection of officers and other inmates, “but for their own protection as well.”

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said he would look into the matter and follow up when he has more information.

Black Press Media has reached out to Corrections Canada for comment.

READ MORE: Photographic, audio and video evidence made public post-trial

READ MORE: Legebokoff’s appeal dismissed by Supreme Court of Canada

Doherty has been vocal in his opposition of Bill C-83, which would replace solitary confinement with “structured intervention units” that separate inmates but don’t stop them from continuing rehabilitation or intervention programs.

READ MORE: To catch a killer

READ MORE: Alleged local serial killer a ‘normal guy’

Last January, a B.C. Court of Appeal judge granted a six-month extension for the federal government to fix its solitary confinement law after a lower court declared indefinite prisoner segregation unconstitutional.


@ashwadhwani
ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca

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