Victim's dad 'relieved'
'Worse things than dying in jail'
Suzanne Fournier, The Province
Published: Thursday, September 13, 2007

The grieving father of one of former judge David Ramsay's victims is "relieved" that

Ramsay was denied day parole, but his anger still burns.

"I'm not a cold or vindictive person, but there are worse things than dying in jail -- my daughter passed away because people like Ramsay, who attacked her when she was only 13, drove her back to drugs again and again," said Bob Sandbach, a Prince George welder whose daughter Celynn, 22, died on April 1.

Sandbach said when Celynn was 13, she was taken by Ramsay to an isolated spot off Highway 16.

"He got mad when she insisted he wear a condom and hit her with a club he had. She fought him and fell backwards, then he yelled he would have her killed if she told anyone and he sped off, leaving her naked," said Sandbach.

"I think how humiliated and cold and afraid she must have been to have to go back to the highway and flag down someone, who, thank God, helped her."

A stinging four-page decision by National Parole Board members Connie Snow and Pat O'Brien called Ramsay "an untreated sexual offender" who poses too much risk to release despite his begging for day parole "on humanitarian grounds" because he has terminal cancer.

The board noted Ramsay's request for parole "galvanized First Nation and victim advocacy groups" across Canada.

"You were a sitting Provincial Court Judge in the city where the offences occurred, and you used the authority and 'psychological reach' of your esteemed position to victimize young girls who were living out tragic personal circumstances, and who, in some cases, had reason to appear before your Court," the board members wrote.

Those he victimized in acts of escalating sexual violence were mostly aboriginal, underage girls living in poverty.

Ramsay, 64, has served three years of a seven-year sentence levied in 2004.

"Because someone is dying in prison is not enough to say we would release the offender back into the community," said NPB Atlantic spokesman Brian Chase, who said Ramsay could apply again for parole on different grounds.

He will be due for statutory release on Jan. 30, 2009, the two-thirds point of his sentence.

sfournier@png.canwest.com