Change the guidelines over who gets parole

Re: “Man who killed UVic student 37 years ago gets day parole,” March 15.

The moment I saw Marguerite Telesford’s picture on the front page, I became a statistic: another outraged friend of the parents of a murdered daughter, seeing her killer gain an improvement in his incarceration conditions.

In that moment, I was transported back to the evening in 1992, my first Bible study in her parents’ home. I saw her beautiful portrait on the wall, and asked who she was.

That’s when I heard the story, told quietly, without anger, but the pain and heartache in their voices and eyes was vivid. I felt guilty about bringing it up for them to relive yet again.

The litany of her murderer’s crimes is a list of reasons to deny him this step; that they’re fully acknowledged by the parole board, and day parole was granted anyway, beggars belief.

How has this system gone so horribly wrong? Didn’t the people who run the prison system get the message last summer, with regard to the murderer of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy?

I don’t want to hear that they’re just applying the guidelines. Change the guidelines.

We, the public, can only hope and pray that they guessed right about this man; that some other young woman and her parents aren’t going to pay the price for their error.

Lorraine Lindsay Saanich

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