Sex killer granted escorted passes
The man who killed and raped a Calgary convenience store clerk in 1993 is now able to leave prison on temporary passes to visit his family.
The Parole Board of Canada recently granted Luc Yolande Gregoire a series of four escorted temporary absences, allowing him to leave prison accompanied by a correctional officer.
Gregoire, now 53, abducted Lailanie Silva as she worked a night shift at a 7-Eleven store on Rundlehorn Drive N.E.
The decision to grant Gregoire any freedom — even temporarily — has angered Silva’s eldest sister, who believes the killer remains a danger to society.
“Do they really think they can keep an eye on him? There’s always a way he could escape,” Nina Silva said Wednesday.
Gregoire is serving an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years — a milestone he still has not reached.
The parole board said Gregoire is neither eligible nor ready to venture into the com- munity alone, but said he has shown signs of progress and could benefit from the family visits.
“Your case management team indicates you accept total responsibility for your involvement in the offences resulting in your life sentence,” the parole board said in its written decision, translated from French.
“The board notes you are adequately supervised and your escorted absences will provide a new avenue of therapy.”
After abducting Silva, he strangled and raped her before dumping her body in a ditch along 80th Avenue N.E. — an area that was at the edge of the city back then.
Homicide investigators arrested Gregoire after a surveillance team saw him trying to dispose of a bag containing Silva’s belongings.
Gregoire refused to tell investigators the location of Silva’s body, which was found the next day by a passerby.
“On pronouncing sentence, the judge described your actions as the most barbaric and revolting he had ever seen. The victim had numerous violent injuries on her body, was strangled and sexually assaulted afterward,” the parole board wrote.
Numerous psychological assessments on Gregoire over the years have diagnosed him with personality disorders and sexual deviance.
The parole board noted Gregoire spent most of his time behind bars resisting treatment and racking up institutional charges for misconduct and drugs.
But the parole board said Gregoire’s attitude began to change in 2007, following the death his father.
“You weren’t capable of going to his funeral because your negative behaviour while incarcerated would have required you to be escorted by armed guards, with shackles on your feet and hands. You didn’t want to impose that situation on your family,” the parole board wrote.
Since then, Gregoire has enrolled in substanceabuse and sex-offender treatment, and his behaviour has improved to the point where he has been transferred to a minimumsecurity institution.
The parole board’s decision doesn’t specify if Gregoire will be restrained during his escorted passes, saying only he will be under “close supervision” of a correctional officer.
He will be allowed four visits within the next year, each with a maximum duration of 11 hours.
Gregoire’s current location and the destination of his visits have been blacked out, but the parole document says his mother will be among the relatives present during the family visits.
“You hope to re-establish ties with your family,” the board wrote.
“You’re aware they have an important role in your reintegration. You also hope to adjust, very gradually, to life in the community.”
Although the parole board agreed to escorted passes, it said Gregoire remains a long way from any greater degree of freedom.
Gregoire has spent most of his adult life in prison, and assessments continue to rate him a moderate to high risk to reoffend sexually.
“Your criminal record demands caution,” the board wrote.