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Hey, it's Nancy. Before we begin today, I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Before I begin today, a warning. This episode contains details of sexual assault and violence. On Good Friday, 2023, a young Calgary woman went to bed early. As she slept, her phone rang, but she didn't hear it.
Then, in the middle of the night, loud knocks on her door woke her up. And there's two cops at my door. And at first you're thrown off because you're like, is my family okay? And then things spiral in your mind after that, right? You get a little scared.
The officers were there to tell the woman that the man who raped her more than 20 years earlier was missing from his halfway house and went AWOL. When's it going to stop? Is he going to have to do something like this again to someone else? And then maybe they'll open their eyes and realize, hey, we need to put him in jail for longer? I don't know, but it's scary. Yeah. Yeah.
I'm Nancy Hixt, a senior crime reporter for Global News. Today on Crime Beat, I share how a survivor of a violent sexual assault continues to be victimized more than two decades later. This is the horror that still lurks. I first introduced you to Lisa back in season two.
She shared what happened to her in 2002 when she was juggling multiple jobs to put herself through university. She was just 19 years old at the time. One of those jobs was at a Calgary tanning salon. After a few months at the salon, she was offered the chance to manage her own store and was asked to meet with the owner's nephew to go over details of the job.
She stayed late after work one evening for the meeting, which seemed to go smoothly. During their interview, Lisa mentioned she was having problems shutting off the lights in the basement. The man offered to take a look. She was grateful for the help and they both headed to the basement. What happened next was violent and disturbing.
The man who was supposed to be offering her a new job, Marcel Perrant, instead violently attacked her. He used a knife to threaten her, then he raped her and sodomized her. You don't know what's going to happen. Are you going to make it out of this room? Or am I going to make it to my car? Is he going to come to my house and kill me? Is he going to do all these things that he says he's going to do? I don't know this person and I don't know what he's capable of. It's not like...
It's not just the rape or the sexual assault. It's the whole thing around it. It's the whole premeditation. It's the whole I was vulnerable and I was duped. I was duped into believing and buying this crock of shit story that I was going to get promoted. So there's my trust gone.
You'll remember in the original episode, The Horror That Lurks, I shared how Lisa's attacker, Marcel Perrant, was convicted of sexual assault and possession of a weapon. He was sentenced to four years in prison. In 2006, Calgary police applied to the courts to have him monitored for a year after his release. At that time, CPS also warned the public he was a high risk to re-offend.
Five years after Lisa's attack, he did just that. Perrant sexually assaulted someone else. He was convicted of uttering threats to cause death, sexual assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon, and unlawful confinement. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, and he was also declared a long-term offender, or LTSO.
Under this designation, an offender is monitored in the community for 10 years after release from prison. In this case, the long-term supervision order took effect in April of 2014 when he was released from prison, and it is still in effect. It expires in November of 2025.
In 2020, when I first shared Lisa's story, she was contacted by Victim Services and notified that Perrant was seeking to move back to Calgary. He still has family in the city. His request was denied, and he remains in British Columbia. Perrant has walked away from his halfway house in the lower mainland of B.C. several times.
He's been convicted twice of breaching his long-term supervision order. According to documents obtained by Global News from the Parole Board of Canada, he's been involved in two unreported relationships with females. And in the summer of 2022, the Parole Board recommended Perrant face new criminal charges.
According to documents obtained by Global News, Perrant's backpack was searched one day as he was leaving the community residential facility. Members of his case management team found what they believed to be a rape kit that included zap straps, a folding knife with a curved blade, a box cutter, duct tape, and Vaseline.
The board said a further search of his room led to the recovery of eight additional knives, including a shank made from a butter knife with a cell phone case glued to the handle.
Staff also found a crack pipe, a dime bag with white residue, a pen barrel with residue, a pen with a needle sticking out of the end, along with a number of women's names and contact information, including addresses. According to the parole board, Perrant denied the items he had constituted a rape kit and denied having any sexual intentions towards anyone.
He didn't have an explanation for the drug paraphernalia, but said the knives were for use at work, as a clerk in a convenience store, and to repair his bicycle. The board concluded Marcel Perrant's risk to reoffend has escalated and is no longer manageable in the community, and said, "There are no supervision programs at the present time adequate to the task of protecting society."
At that time, his long-term supervision order was suspended and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was taken into remand. I searched BC's online court system and couldn't find any record of new charges. According to the parole board, Crown counsel chose not to proceed with charges despite the recommendation by the board.
However, Communications Council for BC Prosecution Services told me they have no record of any report received or processed by the Crown relating to a breach allegation from 2022. The only repercussions Perrant faced was the addition of two special conditions: he's not allowed to possess restraint devices and not allowed to possess knives.
He was subsequently released from custody and moved back into a halfway house, once again in B.C.'s Lower Mainland. Then, in December of 2022, the board reviewed Perron's case once again.
Twenty years after he violently sexually assaulted Lisa, the parole board noted Perrant continues to demonstrate difficulty in controlling his sexual and violent impulses against strangers and those known to him, and expressed concern given the range of potential victims as targets. His reintegration potential has been assessed as low.
According to Perrant's case management team, he continues to struggle with paranoia and lack of motivation. However, he engaged in correctional planning, mental health counseling, and he provided negative urine tests and maintained employment.
In a written decision, the board called the circumstances of the suspension of his LTSO in 2022 "alarming and highly concerning" and said he continues to present a risk to the public requiring ongoing support, supervision and monitoring. The board decided to extend his condition to reside at a halfway house for another 365 days.
I should note, Perrant didn't oppose this residency requirement and has no plans for alternate accommodations and has no savings for his own place. Which brings us to the Easter long weekend 2023. I usually get updated from the victim services from BC whenever something happens with the case until his long-term supervision order is done in 2025. So if he goes missing, they call me.
They apparently called this weekend and half an hour later, not even an hour later, I get a knock at the door, wakes me up. I didn't answer the phone because I was sleeping. It wakes me up and there's two cops at my door. And at first you're thrown off because you're like, is my family okay? Lisa was told Marcel Perrant went AWOL again.
and then things spiral in your in your mind after that right you get a little scared um so every time this kind of happens it takes me back to what happened 20 plus years ago and it makes me super anxious and makes me scared um he has family ties in Calgary would he come back here I don't know
Lisa called me the following morning, on Easter Sunday. She was quite obviously upset and hadn't been given a lot of information. Was her attacker in BC or could he be in Calgary? I checked for any media releases from the police agencies in both BC and Alberta. There weren't any.
So I began checking with police, both the RCMP in Surrey, where his halfway house is located, and here in Calgary, as this is where he's originally from and where Lisa lives, and where she was warned by police. At that time, no public warning was issued by any organization.
A few hours later, Calgary police posted on their Facebook page that Marcel Perrant was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for breaching his conditional release in Surrey. The post stated Perrant should not be approached and if anyone should see him to call police immediately. A day later, on April 9th, Lisa received another call. She was told Perrant was apprehended in Surrey and was back in custody.
Since then, I've spoken with the Surrey RCMP, the Correctional Service of Canada and the Parole Board to find out what happens next. What were the circumstances of his arrest? Did he offend again? Here's what I've learned. And it's a bit complicated because there are multiple jurisdictions. When Perrant was arrested on April 9th, 2023, he went back into custody and remains in remand.
The Parole Board explained he can be held for 90 days, while the Correctional Service of Canada determines if the case should be referred to the Parole Board for review. If that happens, the Board can recommend charges be laid, but the final decision would be up to the B.C. Attorney General and Crown's Office. You'll recall when the Board said that happened previously in 2022, no charges were laid.
After 90 days, the offender must be released into the community unless they're charged with a breach of their LTSO. That would mean, if no charges are laid, Perrant would once again go back to the halfway house.
The Correctional Service of Canada also told me that if an inmate like Perrant is charged and convicted of breaching their LTSO, their eligibility dates would change. But as of the release of this episode, that expiry date of November 2025 has not changed.
I worry because every year that comes closer, I know 2025 is coming and his long-term supervision is going to be done November 2025. And I'm just talking about it, it's giving me goosebumps. It's very scary because in 2025 he can go up and move and be my neighbour.
He can up and move and do whatever he wants. He's asked a lot of times to come back to Calgary. He's asked to be in halfway houses here. He's asked to be prisoned here. And they keep denying him. And they keep asking me to write something and say, do you want this? Absolutely not. I don't want this. I've been dealing with this for how many years? And I'm not looking forward to 2025. I'm not looking forward to it. It's going to be re-traumatizing and it's going to be...
I don't know. I don't know what to say. I'm just, I'm not looking forward to it.
The system has left Lisa beyond frustrated, and she's worried he will offend again. He's going in and out of jail, in and out of jail, breaking his conditions, his parole, his this, his that. When's it going to stop? Is he going to have to do something like this again to someone else? And then maybe they'll open their eyes and realize, hey, we need to put him in jail for longer? I don't know, but it's scary, yeah.
For now, she can only wait until the next update and hopes it won't come with another urgent knock on her door in the middle of the night. "You get up and you do your job and you go to work and you hang out with your friends and you live your normal life. Like I said, I was really young when this happened. I went to therapy for years. And when I say I went for years, I went for years."
It's affected every aspect of my life going forward. But every day you wake up and I'm here and I have a fantastic support system and everyone's just making sure I'm okay. I told some friends about, you know, the knock at the door from the police and everyone's making sure I'm okay. And you just do you every day. And that's all I have to say. Just get up and do your best you can.
I should note, according to BC Justice, Perrant uses multiple aliases, including Marcel Joseph Pappas and Marcel Joseph Gibson. For now, Marcel Perrant remains in remand in BC. Thank you for joining me this week. If there are further developments on this case, I will, of course, share those in a future episode.
Crime Beat is written and produced by me, Nancy Hixt, with producer Dila Velasquez. Audio editing and sound design is by Rob Johnston. Special thanks to photographer-editor Danny Lantella for his work on this episode. And thanks to Chris Bassett, the VP of Network Content, Production and Distribution, and Editorial Standards for Global News.
I would love to have you tell a friend about this podcast and you can help me share these important stories by rating and reviewing Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. You can find me on Twitter at Nancy Hixt, on Facebook at Nancy Hixt Crime Beat, and you can join me on Instagram at nancy.hixt. That's N-A-N-C-Y dot H-I-X-T. Thanks again for listening. Please join me next time.