VANCOUVER — A lawyer wants less time behind bars for a man who abducted a three-year-old boy from his bedroom during a late-night break-in at a home in southeastern British Columbia.
Ken Beatch has argued in the B.C. Court of Appeal that his client, Randall Hopley, should be granted more than three years' credit for time already served in order to reduce his seven-year sentence.
Beatch has told a trio of appeal judges that granting Hopley more than one-to-one credit for time served, to one-to-1.5, is a question of fairness.
A Crown lawyer opposes the application, arguing that to do so would undermine the fundamental purpose of the sentence — protecting the public.
Hopley kidnapped Kienan Hebert from his home in Sparwood, B.C., in September 2011 before returning the boy to his parents four days later.
Hopley has a history of sexually abusing children but Kienan was apparently not assaulted by his abductor, who was labelled a long-term offender and is therefore subject to 10 years of supervision following his release.
