Accused kidnapper allowed to drive away
Posted Feb 26, 2011 7:25 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RCMP now say there will be a review into why a constable stopped a convicted sex offender, allegedly with a kidnapped 10-year-old girl in his car, and then let him go.
The mounties say 43-year-old John Francis Dionne was stopped by one of their own and handed a speeding ticket before the child was reported missing.
Police say information about Dionne’s history of sex crimes against children should have been available to the constable but the investigation will determine where the failure was.
Dionne was not supposed to have any contact with children.
RCMP Sergeant Tim Taniguchi tells 660News there are several questions that need to be answered as to what the officer who conducted the traffic stop knew.
“At this point though, we don’t know if the police officer had that information at that time, or accessed that information at that time. So, there is an extensive review that is going to be taking place in the next few days,” says Taniguchi.
Despite this, RCMP say it’s very likely that being pulled over by police could spook a kidnapper and prompt him to let a child go.
That may have been what happened in this case, with the ten-year-old being dropped off at a McDonald’s in Airdrie. She was reunited with her family and taken to the Alberta Children’s Hospital as a precaution.
After being arrested at a home in Linden on Friday night, Dionne now faces charges of kidnapping, child abduction, assault, robbery and impersonating a police officer.
