Child abductor Randall Hopley labelled long-term offender

Convicted child abductor Randall Hopley has escaped dangerous-offender status and the indefinite prison term it carries.

Hopley, who abducted three-year-old Kienan Hebert from the bedroom of his unlocked home in Sparwood, B.C., in 2011, was instead declared a long-term offender on Friday.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Heather Holmes sentenced him to a total of seven years in prison followed by 10 years of supervision, The Canadian Press reports. With time already served taken into account, Hebert faces five years behind bars.

The Crown had argued Hopley, who had a record of sexually assaulting children, should be declared a dangerous offender because he posed a high risk to reoffend. It would have meant an indeterminate prison sentence subject to periodic reviews on his level of rehabilitation.

Defence lawyer William Thorne argued Hopley, 48, did not physically harm Hebert and should not face potential incarceration until he's an old man, CBC News reported.

But CP said Judge Holmes, who delivered the sentence in a Cranbrook, B.C., courtroom, ruled Hopley did not meet the criteria for dangerous-offender status.

Holmes said his previous sexual assaults were too far back in time to form a repetitive pattern of behaviour necessary for a dangerous-offender designation.

[ Related: Randall Hopley is too dangerous to release, court told ]

In an act that was nightmarish for Hebert's parents, Kienan vanished from his second-floor bedroom the night of Sept. 7, 2011. The disappearance sparked a frantic search by police and hundreds of residents of the Rocky Mountain town in southeastern B.C.

Kienan's father, Paul Hebert, made an emotional plea to the boy's then-unknown abductor to return him unharmed.

Meanwhile, investigators began to look closely at Hopley, who also lived in Sparwood. Described as a social misfit, Hopley had been in regular trouble with the law, including a 1985 conviction for sexually assaulting a five-year-old child and a 2008 conviction for breaking an entering in a failed attempt to kidnap a 10-year-old boy, the Globe and Mail reported

While the investigation was underway, Kienan mysteriously reappeared unharmed back at his home four days after his abduction. Hopley, perhaps responding to Paul Hebert's plea, deposited the child on the living room couch in another overnight entry to the unguarded home, then slipped away.

[ Related: With B.C. boy Kienan Hebert home safe, questions now on how Mounties let abductor slip away ]

A few days later, RCMP tracked Hopley to a vacant bible camp just across the border in Alberta, where he had been hiding out.

He pleaded guilty last year to abducting a person under age 14, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence, and breaking an entering for the purpose of committing an indictable offence.

Hopley said he took Kienan to get even with the justice system for being jailed in the previous failed abduction.

Evidence revealed Hopley held Kienan in a cabin at an abandoned mining site before sneaking him back home.

"I did this out of protest to the RCMP, Judge Webb and my lawyer," he said, referring to the earlier conviction in 2007, CBC News reported last year.

It doesn't seem that Kienan was targeted. Hopley apparently tried several doors, looking for a child to snatch, before finding the Hebert home unlocked and noticing children's toys on the lawn.

He said he hooked up the power at the vacant cabin and brought along a TV and videos for the boy to watch, and also a teddy bear.

The case featured bizarre elements, including Hopley taking to Facebook in the midst of the manhunt to apologize for the abduction and promising he had not harmed the child.

And after his arrest, Hopley had a face-to-face meeting with Paul Hebert, who thanked him for bringing back his son.

"I did not sexually assault your child whatsoever," Hopley replied in the video-recorded encounter, CBC News said. "It is nothing to do with your family. It makes me upset I did something so stupid."

At his sentencing hearing, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Emlene Murphy testified Hopley is in a group of pedophiles most likely to reoffend. He was in foster care from age 10 to 19 and during that time he sexually assaulted pre-pubescent children living with him, the court heard.

Prosecutors said Hopley, who has a tested IQ of between 59 and 73, has refused to take part in any kind of counselling, justifying dangerous-offender status.

But Thorne argued Hopley should be jailed for two years, including credit for time served.

Little Kienan, now five, has reportedly shown no adverse psychological effects from his abduction. He told police Hopley didn't touch him and that they played games until Kienan asked to go home.