High Park Rapist back on streets after 20 years
Lives near McGill’s student ghetto and authorities fear he still poses a danger
In the 1980s, the High Park Rapist terrorized women in west-end Toronto, stalking victims, breaking into their homes, blindfolding them and sexually assaulting them under threat of death.
The assailant, Michael Giroux, embodied the “contemporary urban nightmare,” a prosecutor would say in 1996 after Giroux pleaded guilty to five sexual assaults and more than 30 related crimes.
Rejected for early release because he was considered a high risk to reoffend, Giroux served his entire 20-year sentence before being freed last fall and moving into an apartment on the edge of Montreal’s McGill student ghetto.
Authorities remain concerned that he poses a serious danger but are limited in their options. In March of this year, Giroux, 55, agreed to a two-year peace bond imposing conditions including a curfew, restricted Internet access and a prohibition from possessing pornography or being in the presence of children without supervision.
Beginning in 2009 until his release, the Parole Board of Canada held annual reviews of Giroux’s case to determine whether he would receive statutory release, typically granted to inmates not sentenced to life after they have served two-thirds of their sentence.
For seven straight years, the board arrived at the same conclusion: there were reasonable grounds to believe that if released early, Giroux was “likely to commit an offence causing death or serious harm to another person.”
The Parole Board documents paint a chilling picture of a sex offender whose entrenched sexual deviancy began with prowling in 1980 and progressed to rape while threatening victims with scissors and a letter opener. Giroux refused treatment during his imprisonment and continued to minimize the harm caused to his victims, the documents say.
The crimes for which he was imprisoned occurred between 1984 and 1988, targeting women aged between 23 and 42. “Your crimes were calculated, predatory and brutal in nature,” a Parole Board panel wrote in 2009, noting that the wave of attacks “caused significant fear and anxiety in the community” and led to the creation of a special police task force.
“You terrorized women living alone in the sanctity of their own homes . ... Their lives, relationships, level of trust and their ability to function day to day, have been irrevocably altered by your selfish and brutal crimes. Victim impact statements make it clear that lives have been shattered.”
The first decision rejecting his release said that he agreed to plead guilty “in exchange for the Crown not proceeding on a dangerous offender order.” That spared the victims from having to testify, but it also meant he could not receive the “indeterminate” sentence that can be given to dangerous offenders.
In 2011, a panel noted that Giroux had been found to “belong to a very difficult group of offenders who are not good candidates for change through treatment.” That year he had been transferred to a maximum-security prison after a search of his cell found drugs, computer hardware and “extensive pornographic materials.”
His case management team with Correctional Service Canada reported that Giroux had “refused to participate in programming to address your deviant sexual behaviour” and had “repeatedly disputed the effectiveness of sex offender treatment.”
In 2015, the final rejection before his sentence expired, Giroux had been returned to a medium-security prison, but a panel found no reduction in the risk he presented to the public.
“While you present as intelligent and articulate, you continue to minimize the harm you have caused to your many victims and rationalize your paraphilia,” the panel wrote, using a psychiatric term for sexual deviancy. “The CSC does not believe that there are any sufficient safeguards in the community to manage the risk you present to the public.”
Last November, with Giroux back on the streets, a police officer swore a statement stating that she had reason to fear he would cause “serious personal injury” and requested a peace bond to restrict his actions under Section 810.2 of the Criminal Code.
At a hearing March 21, Giroux agreed to a list of 21 conditions. He is prohibited from possessing firearms or other weapons and from communicating with his victims or coming within 500 metres of their homes or places of work.
He cannot have contact with anyone under the age of 16, unless he is supervised by an adult aware of his criminal record, and he is not allowed to visit parks, swimming pools or playgrounds where children are likely to be present.
He is not allowed to use the Internet, except for legitimate work purposes, and he cannot access or possess pornography. He is forbidden from having alcohol or drugs, from frequenting bars and from using prostitutes.
He must be at his address between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. except for work purposes, and he needs court approval to travel outside the province or to change his address.
At the hearing, Giroux expressed concern about the Internet restriction because he trades stocks and invests in real estate online.
“I spend just about the whole day on the computer,” he told the court.
Quebec Court Judge Dominique Joly told him he could go online only for work. “And if you are working, you cannot use it for pornography,” she stressed.
Giroux’s current address is a four-storey apartment building that caters to students, with a For Rent banner out front declaring “Welcome McGill.” His lawyer told the court he intends to move this spring, but there is no indication of a change of address in the court file.
A spokeswoman for the Montreal police department said it is not department policy to advise the public when a sex offender is subjected to a peace bond after completing his sentence.
The CSC does not believe that there are any sufficient safeguards in the community to manage the risk you present to the public.