B.C. sex offender Randall Hopley sentenced to 29 months in jail

B.C. sex offender sentenced A high-risk sex offender who disappeared from a Vancouver halfway house has been sentenced to 29 months in prison.

A high-risk sex offender who disappeared from a Vancouver halfway house last fall – sparking a 10-day manhunt – was sentenced to 29 months in prison in Vancouver provincial court Friday.

Randall Hopley pleaded guilty last month to two counts of breaching his long-term supervision order and one count of failing to attend court.

Authorities said Hopley cut off his ankle monitor and fled his halfway house on Nov. 4, breaching the conditions of his supervision order two days before he was scheduled to stand trial for another breach of those conditions.

He was placed on long-term supervision after serving his sentence for abducting a three-year-old boy in the southeastern B.C. community of Sparwood in 2011.

The intense search for Hopley – who has a history of sexual offences against children – came to an end on Nov. 14 outside a Vancouver police building on the Downtown Eastside.

Hopley told investigators he was planning to turn himself in because he was cold.

At one point during Friday’s proceedings, Hopley burst out in anger as Justice Jennifer Oulton was reading through his prior criminal history, specifically convictions of sex crimes.

"I want to stop you," said Hopley. "There is not three sexual assaults, there is only two."

“You got it wrong,” the 58-year-old said to Oulton.

Hopley’s lawyer and the courtroom sheriff were able to calm him down to let Oulton continue.

According to the court, Hopley’s first breach occurred in November of 2022, when he breached a condition of not being in the presence of children under the age of 16 while at a public library.

Oulton sentenced Hopley to nine months in jail for that, while giving him 20 months for his escape last November.

Those sentences will be served consecutively, while Oulten gave him six months for missing court in November of 2022, which will be served concurrently.

With credit for time served, Hopley will be released from prison in 18 months.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Andrew Weichel