Prison psychiatrists warned that accused child abductor Randall Hopley would reoffend if he was released after a conviction for sexually assaulting a child in the early 1980s, according to documents obtained by CTV News.

One hope for Hopley was to be placed in an institution for the mentally handicapped similar to Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, according to a 1986 psychiatric assessment, though he was never committed.

"I see him as a high risk to reoffend unless he is in a supervised setting," Dr. Joseph Noone wrote.

"Unfortunately, he is one of those individuals who tends to fall between the cracks of various agencies."

The doctor added, "It would be important to place him firmly within the purview of the ministry responsible for the management of mentally retarded persons."

Hopley is the man accused of abducting three-year-old Kienan Hebert from his home in Sparwood earlier this month. The boy was returned days later, apparently unharmed.

Riverview confirmed to CTV News that Hopley was never a patient there. Prison documents show Hopley refused all sex offender treatment, though he was a "good" inmate interested in being tutored.

"I don't believe in talking to people," said Hopley at the time, according to the report. "It's not their business. I take my own precautions."

Psychiatric assessments of Hopley when he was a teenager view him as a mildly mentally handicapped person who couldn't control his impulses. One report says Hopley enjoyed lighting fires, and molested three other young children as a youth. According to the mandatory supervision report, he was not charged in those incidents.

On Sept. 3, 1987, the prison holding Hopley was legally obligated to let him go. It remains difficult to get court records from that time, but the next time he was accused of molesting a child was in 1992, according to a report from the Cranbrook Daily Townsman newspaper.

In 2007, he was charged with abducting a 10-year-old child, but those charges were stayed. In 2010, he was accused of breaking-and-entering in order to obtain photos of young children.

In the recent court actions, Crown lawyers appear to have no knowledge of the extensive psychiatric work done on Hopley as a youth, and didn't do their own psychiatric review – one reason Hopley was ordered released from custody pending trial in July 2010.

The Crown should have asked for a more recent psychiatric assessment when the allegations against Hopley were raised more recently, said forensic behaviour specialist Dr. Matt Logan.

"They might have found out enough about him that they could circumvent this latest incident," said Dr. Logan.

The Crown can apply for a Section 810 order to restrain an offender's movements after he has been incarcerated, said Dr. Logan. But he added that it's difficult to put someone in a mental institution against their will based on previous offences.

Hopley may not have wanted to be institutionalized, the documents suggest.

A mandatory supervision report from 1986 says Hopley refused to participate in any sexual offender treatment programs, and appeared not to understand the nature of his illness.

"The seriousness of his offences has not registered with Hopley at all," the report says. "He expresses no insight into the behaviour of his victims."

In order to keep the public safe, Hopley would have to be on a 24-hour supervision to ensure he didn't molest any children, the report says.

"Because of the disturbances in his psychosexual development, unless he is treated, he will continue to pursue inappropriate outlets for sexual release," the report says.

The report says that Hopley's behaviour in Mountain Institution in Agassiz was "good" and he had received tutoring on an individual basis to help him improve reading and math. Alcohol and drugs were not a problem for him, the report says.

According to the report, Hopley said he was just biding his time until he was released.

"I like it here and I keep to myself…. I expect they will have to let me out; others have done nothing and got out," he said.