Photo: Abbotsford Police Department Police photos of Taylor Dueck with different hair length and facial hair.
A Kelowna family is looking for answers after their 11-year-old daughter was allegedly victimized by a high-risk sex offender earlier this month.
Taylor Dueck, 29, is facing charges of sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and breach of probation following an incident in the bathroom of a Kelowna equestrian facility on February 9, 2024.
The girl managed to flee and reported the incident to her parents and authorities, who are extremely familiar with Dueck. He has a long history of violent sexual offences and has been the subject of multiple previous public warnings, but not when he was recently released into Kelowna.
In both 2018 and 2022, he was denied parole due to concerns he would reoffend.
The Parole Board of Canada ruled in 2022 he would "present a risk to reoffend against both strangers and acquaintances...of particular concern to the board is the psychologist's opinion that you posses the ability to '....quickly take advantage of any opportunities to offend.'"
He was released in June 2023 at the end of his sentence, documents indicate.
Upon a previous release from prison in February 2020, the Abbotsford Police Department issued a public warning alerting the community that Dueck would be living in the community and that he was subject to court-ordered conditions.
However, a few days later police released a statement that Dueck was living in Mission, B.C.
Dueck found himself back in court for an offence that occurred in Mission on March 20, 2020. The charges came just weeks after he was released from prison after serving 4.5-year sentence for multiple sexual assaults.
Since his most recent arrest in Kelowna, he has remained in custody.
"The court has ordered that a technical suitability report be prepared (to canvass his suitability for electronic monitoring) and his next appearance is on Feb. 29, 2024," said the BC Prosecution Service.
The family of the victim, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, wants to know why the community was not alerted to Dueck's presence in the Okanagan.
"Somebody needs to be held accountable, if he's on probation and there are stipulations that he's supposed to be following, other than letting him do whatever the hell he wanted. That part blows my mind away," said the victim's father.
"It's our understanding that he was supposed to be supervised at all times. We have no idea how he managed to get her alone in that washroom."
The victim's parents believe Dueck may have chosen the equestrian facility as part of his rehabilitation but they question the wisdom of allowing a high-risk sex offender to be on the same grounds as families and young girls of all ages.
"It shouldn't happen anywhere... He could have done it at a mall or anywhere else."
Kelowna RCMP spokesman Cpl. Michael Gauthier said the detachment "sought" a public interest disclosure, or public warning, about Dueck prior to his release in Kelowna, "however the threshold was not met in this case based on the totality of the circumstances."
Castanet has requested information from the Ministry of Public Safety about who is the decision maker when it comes to informing the public about sexual predators being released in the community.
The victim's father says his daughter is currently in counselling and by his estimation she's doing well, considering. "She's a strong girl."
The irony for her dad is he wanted her to choose a sport like equestrian to help build resilience and independence.
"In my opinion, he was just training everybody there to give him more leeway to get an opportunity to strike. Because he'd been there for a while. And then he just kind of got everybody accustomed to him being away for longer and more time. And the first opportunity he got he made an attempt."
The victim's parents lament the fact that it happened at all, especially to their daughter, but based on Dueck's history they also recognize the attack could have been worse.
"If it had been summer he could have had ample opportunity to try something outside. It's a huge facility surrounded by wooded areas," says the victim's mother.
Parole board documents indicate that two of Dueck's previous attacks took place in a wooded area.
Dueck was previously found guilty of offering a 10-year-old girl $20 to "keep a secret" and coercing her to go with him to a tent, where he groped her. He committed that offence less than two months after the release of the previous 4.5-prison sentence for sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon, said parole board documents.
He was responsible for four separate sexual assaults on teenage girls in 2014. Two of those attacks involved 14 year olds in wooded areas, one involved a 16 year old and threats with a knife while another girl was groped and forcibly assaulted in the bathroom of a bowling alley.
"You have been on some form of court-ordered supervision or serving a jail sentence exclusively for offences involving sexual violence without any real break for nearly the last nine years," the parole board decision denying his early release said.