Killer of 2 Moncton police officers 44 years ago loses bid to leave prison on own

A man convicted of murdering two Moncton police officers more than 40 years ago has been denied unescorted temporary absences from prison.

The Parole Board of Canada rejected Richard Bergeron's request, citing his "capacity for extreme violence" in an Oct. 2 decision.

The 69-year-old man who changed his last name from Ambrose is serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of the officers in 1974.

"You appear to believe you are much more ready for a conditional release than your (case management team) believes," the decision says of Bergeron'srequest to leave prison to set up a bank account in British Columbia's Fraser Valley and attend a community residential facility on Vancouver Island.

Bergeron also sought to attend a minimum security institution on Vancouver Island and go to a storage rental business to arrange to have his personal belongings moved from Alberta to British Columbia.

Bergeron was granted full parole in 2000, but it was revoked five years later.

High risk to violently re-offend

Psychiatric and psychological risk assessments since 1976 rate him as a high risk to violently reoffend.

"On balance, having considered the gravity of the index offence and your capacity for extreme violence, your prior failure on conditional release, your moderate-high actuarial risk score, your quick frustration and hostile reactions, and your continued refusal to work co-operatively with your (Case Management Team) and the Elders, as well as the failure to take responsibility for your own actions, your risk on an unescorted absence in the community would be undue," the board wrote.

The board noted Bergeron's Mtis background and his involvement with an Indigenous program and elders, though states he gave an elder the middle finger and threatened him.

Began with kidnapping

Bergeron and James Hutchison were sentenced to hang for the shootings of Const. Michael O'Leary and Cpl. Aurele Bourgeois.

The crimes started with the Dec. 13, 1974, kidnapping of 14-year-old Raymond Stein, the son of well-known Moncton restaurateur Cy Stein.

Stein agreed to pay a $15,000 ransom and his son was released unharmed.

Bourgeois and O'Leary then reported they were following a suspicious Cadillac.

But that was the last time anyone heard from O'Leary and Bourgeois.

Their bodies were found in shallow graves outside Monctonon Dec. 15, 1974.

The parole board decision states Bergeron and his accomplice abducted the officers, put them in the trunk of a vehicle and drove them to a remote area where they were forced to dig their own graves before they were shot with their service revolvers.

Canada outlawed capital punishment and both Bergeron and Hutchison remained in prison.

In 2011, Hutchison died in prison.

Minimized involvement

The decision says Bergeron previously refused to discuss the crime and denied or minimized his involvement until 1992.

He told the board he doesn't present a risk and repeatedly said he hasn't been violent since 1974.

The decision says Bergeron escaped prison in 1980 after he and another inmate sawed off bars of the cell, climbed to the roof and down the walls. He was arrested three days later.

Previously granted parole

Bergeron was granted day parole in 1999 and then full parole in July 2000. He suffered a brain injury in a 2003 workplace accident.

Bergeron said it is wrong to expect him to be normal because of the brain injury, the report says.

While on parole "there were concerns" he was abusive to his spouse and "accused of trying to choke your family member," the report says.His parole wasrevoked in 2005.

Subsequent requests for parole have been denied.