Jane Doe rapist free soon
After 20-year sentence attacker still violent, experts say
After 20-year sentence attacker still violent, experts say
Serial rapist Paul Douglas Callow will be freed from prison in two weeks. (WONDERFUL!)
And there's not much anyone can do about it.
Callow, who became known as the Balcony Rapist during a serial rape spree in Toronto in the mid-1980s, will have completed a 20-year prison sentence Feb. 25 and will be freed in British Columbia.
It's believed Callow will live in the Vancouver area, where his family lives.
Callow had already sexually attacked two women in the 1970s before he raped five women at knifepoint during the Toronto attacks.
After stalking his victims, Callow climbed onto their second- or third-storey balconies and entered through broken windows or doors.
He then raped his victims for up to 90 minutes.
Callow, who came to Toronto from Vancouver in 1981 and then married and had a little girl, once told a psychiatrist that he was responsible for 26 rapes.
His string of rapes -- in the Wellesely and Sherbourne area -- included the brutalization of a woman who became known as Jane Doe.
Jane Doe launched a $1.2-million lawsuit against Toronto Police in which she alleged they were negligent for not warning women about the Balcony Rapist's attacks.
She was later awarded $220,000 by a judge who agreed she had been used as "bait."
Trial Judge John Kerr noted when he passed sentence that if any of the victims had resisted Callow "we might be sitting here on a charge of murder".
A National Parole Board (NPB) panel agreed with Justice Kerr in 2000 when they ordered Callow to stay in prison for the full 20-year duration of his sentence.
At the most recent NPB review of Callow's detention Jan. 15, it was noted that he was involved in the prison drug subculture.
Drug paraphernalia were found in his possession Dec. 27, the NPB said in parole documents obtained by the Toronto Sun, and he "admitted to getting high on three separate occasions."
Tests show that Callow poses a high risk to reoffend sexually, or with violence.
The NPB noted that Callow had difficulties "controlling inappropriate behaviour" and in one case attempted to rape a nurse who worked at a treatment program.
Steve Sullivan, executive director of the Ottawa-based Resource Centre for the Victims of Crime, said Callow's case "is another example of the problem we have in our system."
"He was too dangerous to release on parole; he was too dangerous to give five statutory release," Sullivan said.
But now that Callow's sentence is complete, the prison doors are swinging open.
"Now we have to sit
"keep your eyes open"
