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Oughton cancels parole request just before hearing

'Paper Bag Rapist' has done this before.

At the last minute, John Horace Oughton decided he didn't want a parole hearing.

The man known as the "paper bag rapist" cancelled on Monday, Sept. 20, the day before he was scheduled to appear at the hearing.

It isn't the first time he's had a last-minute change of mind.

At one previous Oughton parole hearing, victims and their representatives made the trip to the Mountain Institution in Agassiz, only to discover the hearing would not proceed minutes before the start time.

Oughton was declared a dangerous offender in 1986, after he admitted to sexually assaulting more than 140 women and children during a 10-year rampage that included Burnaby, Langley and other Metro Vancouver communities.

Under Canadian law, a person declared a dangerous offender is jailed with no release date but is entitled to a review of parole eligibility every two years.

The 61-year-old former hot tub salesman was nicknamed the “paper bag rapist” for his habit of placing coverings over his face or the faces of his victims.

Two of them were 11-year-olds from Langley.

Oughton hasn’t participated in his parole hearings since a disastrous appearance in 2003 when he was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed.

There are strict rules governing the behaviour of prisoners at hearings, and Oughton broke one of them when he stood up and turned towards the small gallery where five of his victims were seated.

It appeared that he was trying to make for the exit which would have brought him within feet of his victims.

It took a prison guard, a parole officer and a Langley RCMP officer to subdue him.

- with files from Robert Freeman, Chilliwack Progress



Dan Ferguson

About the Author: Dan Ferguson

Best recognized for my resemblance to St. Nick, I’m the guy you’ll often see out at community events and happenings around town.
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