VANCOUVER — The parole board has been keeping a tight rein on the man known as the balaclava rapist since he was granted day parole last year, newly released documents reveal.
Larry Takahashi is serving three life sentences after pleading guilty to 14 charges involving 23 victims, although a parole board decision says he has admitted to sexually assaulting many more victims in Edmonton in the 1970s and 1980s.
Takahashi, who's now 64, was granted day parole in British Columbia last July after spending most of the last 30 years in prison. He lives in a residential facility somewhere in Metro Vancouver.
While his day parole has been extended for another six months, the decision released Monday says he hardly ventures out and when he does his movements are tightly controlled by his supervisors.
"Your parole supervisor has issued you specific instructions that restrict your movements, whereabouts and associations, and you are subject to electronic monitoring and a curfew," says the parole board decision dated Jan. 27.
The decision also says that police are actively involved in managing his case.
In the decision, the two board members list their concerns with his release, such as his capability of extreme violence and continuing sexual fantasies about rape, but they also note that Takahashi now understands the impact his crimes had on the victims.
"You had not been violent in years, and your progress was observable and measurable," the board members say.
As part of his sentence, he was required to get counselling and have weekly meetings with a mental health worker, which are ongoing, along with the completion of a sex offender maintenance program.
A report from the program to the parole board suggests Takahashi has developed the ability and commitment to manage his risk factors.
"The report suggests you are less self-centred and now have remorse and victim empathy," the parole board decision says.
The decision says Takahashi did not leave his residential facility for six weeks after his parole was granted in July because of negative media attention, and since then he only leaves the facility escorted for a few hours at a time and doesn't travel far.
His "highly structured release plan" has a long list of restrictions, including reporting any sexual or non-sexual relationships with women to his parole supervisor and being prohibited from travelling in vehicles with women other than a bus or SkyTrain. The SkyTrain is the rapid transit route connecting the Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster and Surrey.
Takahashi's other parole conditions include staying away from college or university residential areas without prior permission, not to having access to pornography or sexually explicit material, and abstaining from non-prescribed drugs or alcohol.
The parole board decision says overnight parole privileges were considered but were not authorized because of Takahashi's history of failing to adhere to parole requirements in 2005 and his moderate to high risk to reoffend.
The board says he needs "to establish a longer period of compliance and stability" before overnight privileges can be allowed.
