Almost 30 years before he was accused of abducting three-year-old Kienan Hebert, Randall Hopley had already admitted to three sexual assaults of young children and had a history of lighting fires, according to documents obtained by CTV News.

In 1982, 17-year-old "Randy" Hopley was a troubled, mildly mentally handicapped teen who could not control his impulses and was a constant risk to children, according to a psychiatric assessment.

But the psychiatrist assigned to Hopley's case at the time said there were no programs that could help him.

"Unfortunately, B.C. has no adequate inpatient or outpatient treatment program for sexual offenders, which could be very helpful in this case," Dr. Roy O'Shaughnessy wrote.

"I regret I cannot be of any further assistance in this matter, and I regret that the Forensic Services has not been given the resources to provide a sexual offender treatment program."

O'Shaughnessy recommended Hopley participate in a program in which offenders did manual labour in a farm-like setting, but Hopley was rejected from that program for being too violent.

There's no record of Hopley receiving any treatment between the date of that report and when he turned 19. That's when the documents show he pushed a five-year-old boy to the ground in a Fernie park, pulled down his pants and sexually assaulted him. For that offence, he served federal time.

Hopley was a "time bomb" that should have been treated earlier, criminologist Stephen Hart told CTV News.

"You need a sex offender program that's specialized for people with intellectual disabilities," said Hart. "Those programs are highly specialized and they're not available everywhere."

Hopley is now charged with abducting Hebert, a toddler from Sparwood. He has been ordered to undergo another psychiatric assessment to determine if he is fit to stand trial.

According to the 1982 psychiatric assessment, Hopley has a long history of setting fires, including burning a barn down at 14 and setting fire to a trailer. When asked why he set fires, he said it was because he "liked it," according to the report.

The assessment says Hopley first molested the four-year-old daughter of his care worker in 1981. Shortly after that, he molested a nine-year-old boy living in his foster home. On another occasion, he molested a five-year-old whose parents were visiting the foster home.

"He has continued offending and the court is at this point at a loss as to how to curtail the behaviour," O'Shaughnessy wrote.

It's not clear if lawyers in more recent hearings concerning Hopley had access to any of this information. For example, in a bail hearing dealing with break-and-enters where Hopley is alleged to have stolen photos of young children from houses in Sparwood, neither the Crown nor defence mention any of this history as background.

Hopley's troubles began early in his life. He first showed behavioural problems at age two, when his father died in a mining accident. By age five, he was extremely aggressive and hyperactive at school.

He was examined at Vancouver General Hospital, where doctors found that he had a small skull, and broken bones that could have meant he was abused. Doctors recommended that he be placed in an institution so he could achieve appropriate schooling and socialization.

"This placement did not occur, but instead he has been placed in numerous foster homes (up to eight in one year) since it was discovered that his parents were unable to cope with his behaviour," Dr. O'Shaughnessy wrote.

However there are signs of compassion: When one of his sexual assault victims started to cry, Hopley let him up and told him to go home, the assessment says.

In the abduction of Kienan Hebert, after an Amber Alert was issued and the boy's family begged for his safe return, the boy was returned to his home, apparently unharmed.