Ellard granted conditional day parole

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. • A British Columbia woman who killed 14-year-old Reena Virk near a Victoria-area bridge two decades ago has been given conditional approval for day parole.

Kelly Ellard was granted day parole for six months but must first complete a residential treatment program for substance abuse.

After six months, the parole board will review the decision. Ellard will be subject to conditions including that she cannot use drugs or alcohol or be in contact with anyone involved in criminal activity, or Virk’s family.

Ellard, 35, wiped away tears Thursday as she learned the news. She was 15 when Virk was killed and is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder.

Panel member Colleen Zuk said it goes without saying that Ellard committed a “heinous” crime and that she was largely responsible for Virk’s death.

“It’s very problematic in your case that there have been years and years of deception, of lying about the facts,” Zuk said. “Today we found that you continued to somewhat minimize.”

However, she said she found Ellard to be more transparent than she’d been in the past, including that she admitted to planning to confront and harm Virk and that she wanted to “get rid of her” after the situation escalated to a swarming and a beating.

Ellard told the panel before the decision was made that there was nothing Virk could have possibly said or done to deserve such treatment.

“It wasn’t about her,” she said. “She should have been at home with her family who loved her, not with us that night, and I’m very sorry.”

The two-member panel has ruled that the six-month day parole period will begin as soon as Ellard enters the treatment program.

It’s unclear whether Ellard’s infant son, who lives with her in prison, would be able to join her at the residential substance abuse treatment centre.

She became pregnant last year after having conjugal visits with her boyfriend, who is in prison and is scheduled to return to the community soon.

Ellard first applied for day parole in 2016 and was denied, but in February she was granted temporary escorted absences to go to parenting programs and doctor’s appointments with her baby.

She has served about 15 years in prison, having spent some periods out on bail. She was convicted of seconddegree murder in 2005 after three trials.

A court heard that Ellard and several other teens swarmed and beat Virk, before Ellard and a teenage boy followed her across a bridge, smashed her head into a tree and held her underwater until she drowned.

Warren Glowatski was also convicted of second-degree murder and granted full parole in 2010.