Sex offender Randall Hopley removed ankle bracelet to avoid court date: police

Vancouver police say high-risk sex offender Randall Hopley removed his electronic monitoring ankle bracelet in a "deliberate action" related to a court appearance Monday where he was supposed to go on trial for two counts of previously breaching his long-term supervision order.

Sgt. Steve Addison said at about 3 p.m. PT on Saturday, Nov. 4, Hopley walked away from his Vancouver halfway house after telling several people he was going to a nearby thrift store. He removed his ankle bracelet a short time later and has not been seen since. 

Hopley was declared a long-term offender and handed a six-year prison term for the 2011 abduction of a three-year-old boy in southeastern British Columbia.

He has a long history of convictions for assault, property and sexual crimes, including three sex offences against children.

Hopley's long-term supervision order came into force in October 2018 when his jail sentence for the kidnapping ended. At that time he moved to a halfway house in Vancouver.

On Jan. 12, 2023 Hopley was arrested and charged with two counts of violating his long-term supervision order from an alleged incident on Nov. 10, 2022. Each charge comes with a maximum 10-year jail sentence.

He was held in custody until Feb. 8, 2023, when the court granted him a judicial interim release to the halfway house on a consent agreement. Crown counsel opposed Hopley's release, according to spokesman Daniel McLaughlin.

A Canada-wide warrant has been issued for the 58-year-old. Addison said Hopley could still be in Vancouver or a neighbouring municipality and the Vancouver Police Department's high-risk offender team is among the units searching for him.

He is described as five feet nine inches tall and weighing 176 pounds, with brown hair and hazel-coloured eyes. He was last seen wearing a black coat, black pants and black hat.

B.C. is pushing the federal government to bring in stricter bail conditions for repeat offenders charged with a serious violent offence involving a weapon. The reforms are now in front of the Senate for review, but even if those reforms were in force, they would not have affected Hopley's release.  

"Situations like this that we're experiencing with [Hopley] are unacceptable. When they happen, we have to understand how it happened and make sure that we can make the system better," said B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma.