The second of two inmates who escaped from William Head Institution was caught by West Shore RCMP about 10 a.m. Sunday.
Dean Allen Benton, serving eight years for multiple counts of robbery and other offences, was arrested without incident on Sooke Road near Hatley Memorial Gardens.
Benton escaped with fellow inmate Brian Peter Patrick, who was convicted for a 1991 Nanaimo murder, on Friday night. Patrick was apprehended about 11 a.m. Saturday on the Galloping Goose Trail, near Belmont Secondary School in Langford. A witness spotted Patrick acting suspiciously and called police.
West Shore RCMP Sgt. Scott Braes said the investigation has been helped by a number of tips from the public.
Under the cover of darkness and at low tide on Friday night, the two men walked along the jagged shore that abuts the jail, waded into the water and swam almost 200 metres to a beach on the other side of the rocky outcropping, said West Shore RCMP Cpl. Scott Braes.
Lawson Kons, 15, was with a friend on the beach in front of Weirs Beach mobile home park, on William Head Road, about 10:30 p.m. Friday when they saw a man in dark clothes scurry along the rocks and into the bushes.
“He started flickering a flashlight as if he was signalling someone,” Lawson said, saying the light was directed at the jail. “He disappeared and then started to use the flashlight. He was turning it off and on.”
Lawson and his friend could hear crackling in the bushes and the flickering lasted at least half an hour, he said. The two teens went inside about 11:40 p.m. because they were worried.
It wasn’t until police flooded the mobile home park early Saturday that Lawson discovered there had been an escape from the jail.
Guards discovered the two men were missing during the 11 p.m. head count, Corrections Canada said in a statement. RCMP officers found some clothes on a nearby beach.
The RCMP pursued the prisoners all over Langford. Residents reported seeing Benton near the West Hills subdivision, on Glen Lake Road near the Rugby Canada field, near Leigh Road and in the bush around the Galloping Goose Trail.
Brenda Gibson, who was staying at Weirs Beach mobile home park, said she woke up in the middle of the night to sirens and saw seven police cars in the parking lot. Officers were searching the beach and the surrounding cliff side.
“I asked the officer: ‘What’s going on?’ He said ‘guess,’ and I said, ‘convict escape,’ and he nodded,” Gibson said. “It’s a little disconcerting. I locked the motorhome for the first time ever.”
Benton was serving eight years after being convicted of multiple counts of robbery, attempted robbery and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle stemming from incidents in Vancouver in early 2010. He was also convicted of robbery relating to an offence in Duncan in 2005.
Patrick was convicted of murder for a 1991 killing in Nanaimo. While on parole in 2010, he committed robberies in Chilliwack and Abbotsford and his parole was revoked.
The men will likely face charges of escaping lawful custody and be placed in a higher security prison, RCMP said. Corrections Canada said it will investigate the incident.
