Forsyth says accused should have worn GPS device
Posted Feb 27, 2011 7:25 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Questions are being raised about why a man accused of kidnapping a ten-year-old girl from a Calgary mall wasn’t being more closely monitored.
43-year-old John Francis Dionne was arrested Friday evening in Linden which is northeast of Calgary and charged with kidnapping, child abduction, assault and impersonating a police officer.
Former Alberta Solicitor General Heather Forsyth wants to know why he wasn’t wearing a GPS monitoring bracelet so officials could keep better tabs on him.
She tells 660News Dionne should be wearing one because he’s on the province’s list of high risk offenders website and was the subject of a public warning that he was a dangerous sex offender who posed a threat to re-offend.
He has previously been convicted of sexual assault and kidnapping and is prohibited from being anywhere near children.
Sergeant Tim Taniguchi tells the Calgary Sun, the Mounties also applied for a peace bond against Dionne, which could have imposed conditions like a curfew, but the Crown didn’t pursue it.
He says the Mounties did everything they could to keep tabs on Dionne, including having patrol cars drive by his home in Linden.
