One of Kimberly Proctor’s killers has just been transferred to a medium-security prison, and the murdered teen’s family is dumbfounded.
Less than three years after being sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 10 years, Cameron Moffat was transferred from maximum-security Kent prison to adjacent Mountain Institution last week.
Moffat was 17 and Kruse Wellwood 16 when they lured Langford’s Proctor, 18, to her death on March 18, 2010.
“I’m sorry, but it is insane to think that a person— or monster as we call both Kruse and Cameron given what they did to Kimmy — can move this quickly through our correctional system,” Proctor’s aunt, Jo-Anne Landolt, wrote Corrections Canada after learning of the move.
Kimberly’s grandmother, Linda Proctor, sent a new victim impact statement to federal authorities. “Once again I am having trouble sleeping,” the Victoria woman wrote. “I go to bed thinking about the terrible suffering that Kimmy endured and I wake up, several times a night, in tears thinking about how she suffered.”
Other family members are in similar distress, Linda wrote. “As the mother and the one they turn to for help, I feel helpless to ease their suffering and thus I feel that I am not doing my job.”
Corrections Canada says privacy rules prevent it from talking about Moffat’s transfer. Wellwood remains in Kent.
This comes just as the family was about to launch a renewed push for Kimberly’s Law, a package of reforms it wants made in her name.
Assisted by Victoria lawyer Troy DeSouza, the family has been at this for a couple of years, soliciting signatures on petitions to present to the federal and provincial governments. There’s a kimberlyslaw.com website, a Twitter account, a Facebook page and a video on YouTube.
Kimberly’s Law calls on Ottawa to automatically transfer to adult court anyone aged 16 or over who is accused of murder. The name of any young offender pleading guilty to murder would be made public. Teens tried in adult court would get adult sentences; currently, a minor convicted of first-degree murder in adult court is eligible for parole after 10 years, not 25 as is the case with adults. (The maximum murder sentence in youth court is 10 years — six in custody and four under supervision in the community.) Young people charged with murder would be held in custody apart from other young people.
Kimberly’s Law would require provinces to follow B.C.’s lead in implementing protocols to deal with young people who engage in threatening behaviour. (The Sooke School District was among the first to act after the murder, signing an agreement with the RCMP, Island Health, the Ministry for Children and Families and others to allow professionals to be called in when kids are red-flagged.)
The petition going to the B.C. government calls for mandatory treatment and counselling for any young person identified as a threat. People in the community knew exactly what type of people Moffat and Wellwood were, yet nothing was done to stop them, Linda said. Mandatory treatment would mean putting more money into mental health care, she notes. “But when you see what’s walking around on the street, you see there’s a need for this.”
The changes would also make parents who remain wilfully uninvolved in the lives of their troubled offspring liable for up to $25,000 in civil damages should those children turn violent. The change is aimed at parents who know their children need help but refuse to get them treatment.
Whether these reforms will ever happen is uncertain. Ottawa, having recently implemented a raft of youth-crime changes, might be reluctant.
At least the family has the support of a couple of provincial politicians: New Democrat John Horgan, whose riding is in the West Shore, and Liberal Jane Thornthwaite. The tentative plan is to take the petition to the legislature in May. “We’d like to get as many signatures as possible by then,” Linda says.
Four years after Kimberly’s death, her grandmother is pushing as hard as she can for change.
“It think it would make a huge difference,” Linda says. Identify and help troubled kids early enough, you can stop them from going right off the rails.
“Maybe it’s pie in the sky, but you’ve got to try.”
