Vancouver police nab Randall Hopley

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The Vancouver police had deployed significant resources to put the hand on the high-risk sex offender. (Archive photo)

Radio-Canada

Tuesday morning, Vancouver police announced they had arrested Randall Hopley in the Downtown Eastside. The high-risk sex offender disappeared Nov. 4 after removing his monitoring bracelet.

His arrest occurred shortly after 6 a.m., said the police in a brief press release. As of Tuesday morning, he was being held at the municipal jail.

Randall Hopley left his halfway house on November 4. He had taken the bus and then got off at the intersection of Main and Broadway. That’s where he took off his monitoring bracelet. The police then lost track of him and significant resources were mobilized to find him.

The man, aged 58, was the subject of a national arrest warrant.

Locating Randall Hopley, Vancouver Police Priority

Randall Hopley has previously convicted of assault and sexual crimes, including three against children.

In 2011, he kidnapped a 3-year-old boy in Sparwood, British Columbia, triggering an Amber Alert that lasted four days.

He finally returned the child after sequestering him in an abandoned chalet.

After serving his seven-year prison sentence, the Parole Board of Canada ruled that a supervision order was necessary due to the nature of the crime committed and the high risk of reoffending.

Randall Hopley was charged earlier this year with violating his supervision orders. He was allegedly caught using a computer in a public library, less than 1m from a group of children.

Randall Hopley was scheduled to appear in court on November 6, two days after he disappeared. The authorities put forward the theory that he could have taken measures to avoid going to court.