A man who has been previously convicted of sexually abusing children is back in Kelowna court after allegedly re-offending at an equestrian facility.
After spending multiple stints years in prison dating for convictions of sexual assault dating back to 2014, Taylor Dueck, is back in custody with charges of sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching in relation to a person under 16 years of age, relating to an incident that took place at a Kelowna equestrian facility on Feb. 9, allegedly involving an 11 year old girl.
Dueck had been released from prison 14 months before the alleged offence and was living under the terms of his probation. The terms of Dueck's probation at the time of the incident and all details regarding the alleged offence are prohibited from publication under a court ordered ban.
Dueck was arrested shortly after the incident at the equestrian facility and was charged with sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching in relation to a person under 16 years of age, as well as with breaching his probation order. He has remained in custody since his arrest after being denied bail on March 14.
He appeared in Kelowna provincial court in person on June 7, for a brief 'first appearance' as part of the preliminary inquiry ahead of the trial.
Politicians and members of the public spoke out and expressed frustration after news of Dueck's latest most recent alleged offence was reported.
BC United Party leader Kevin Falcon spoke at a press conference on Feb. 29, and asked why the public was not notified of Dueck’s release from prison.
“This government neglected to notify the public that there was a dangerous pedophile like this in their presence,” said Falcon.
The B.C. Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth also spoke in the legislature and said he is “very angry over what has happened.”
The minister said he has ordered an investigation into all provincial and federal agencies, including BC Corrections, that were involved in the decision to deny the RCMP’s request for a Public Interest Disclosure.
Kelowna RCMP Cpl. Michael Gauthier confirmed that police had requested that a PID be issued prior to Dueck’s release, but said the “threshold was not met,” and the RCMP’s request was denied.
In 2018, Dueck was serving a prison sentence for convictions relating to incidents involving four teenage girls that took place in 2014. The Parole Board of Canada denied Dueck's application for parole and stated that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that he was “likely to commit an offence causing death or serious harm to another person.”
The Parole Board documents also indicate that Dueck had other allegations of sexual misbehaviour that did not result in charges, including kissing a five-year-old girl, groping a nine-year-old girl while playing hide-and-seek, and threatening to post sexually explicit photos online of a girl if she did not have sex with him.
After serving the totality of his sentence, Dueck was released in 2020 and a PID was issued for the community of Abbotsford. Less than two months after his release, Dueck re-offended and was arrested.
The, in 2022, Dueck was denied both full and day parole on the grounds that he was considered at “high risk to re-offend,” by the Parole Board.
He later pleaded guilty to the charges of sexual interference of a person under 16 and was sentenced in August 2022 to one year in jail and three years’ probation.
Dueck was then released from prison in June 2023, been living in Kelowna under the terms of his probation at the time of the February 9, incident at the equestrian centre.
