Former St. John’s city councilor and convicted child sex offender Donnie Snook has been denied parole again.
Snook’s release would “pose an unreasonable risk to the community,” the Parole Board of Canada concluded Friday.
The two-judge board made its oral decision after a virtual hearing based in Abbotsford, British Columbia, where Snook is believed to be serving his 18-year sentence.
“You have a psychological risk assessment that assumes full compliance with all the conditions — and there are many — your risk would be manageable in the community,” board member Kathryn Dawson told Snook in making the decision.
He was assessed as a low risk for general recidivism and a moderate risk for sexual recidivism, according to his parole officer, who supported his request for one-day parole.
“However, the board remains very concerned about the seriousness of your violations,” Dawson said.
“Your release plan, in the board’s opinion, is not sufficient to manage your risk at this time.”
Snook, 50, showed no reaction behind his COVID-19 mask.
Denied 2 years ago
The board concluded that Snook did not demonstrate a strong understanding of his triggers, the criminal cycle, or the skills he could use to manage his risk in the community.
Much of his plan was based on avoidance, Dawson noted—avoiding everything from public restrooms where he might meet boys to TV episodes of Little House on the Prairie featuring a bunch of guys.
This is the second time his application has been rejected. Two years ago, the parole board reached the same conclusion that he would “pose an unreasonable risk.”
The former youth ministry leader has been in custody since 2013. He was convicted after pleading guilty to 46 counts of child exploitation involving 17 boys as young as five over a 12-year period.
His crimes include sexual assault, making child pornography and extortion.
Eighteen years was “one of the longest sentences ever handed down in Canada” for such a case, the prosecutor told reporters at the time.
Snook was also sentenced to an additional three months after pleading guilty to three counts of child exploitation involving a boy under 14 in his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
His sentence does not expire until November 2030, but he became eligible for one-day parole in December 2018 and full parole in June 2019, the parole board previously said.
Sorry, “not appropriate”
“I could say ‘I’m sorry’ all day and that doesn’t do it. It’s not enough,” Snook told the parole board Friday.
“I must show that I would never hurt another boy again and that I recognize the harm I have caused; the harm I did to them when I laid my hands on them.
“So yes, I’m sorry, but more than that I’m sorry. Everything in me is sorry for what I’ve done.”
“A level of treachery we don’t often see”
The board peppered Snook with questions during the hearing, interrupting him at times and challenging some of his answers.
Board member Carol-Ann Reinen asked Snook how he justified his “disgusting” actions while he was committing them.
“I told myself it was something that brought pleasure, no harm,” he replied.
Reinen said she had a “hard time” with that explanation. “If you believed it to be true, then why are you hiding it?”
Snook, a former St. John’s city councilor and youth pastor, told the board he has “worked hard to be honest with [himself] and with others… and to be ready for parole when that happens. (CBC)
Snook, she said, demonstrated “a level of deviousness that we don’t often see.” He “realized [his] a lifetime of offending’ and chose particularly vulnerable victims.
Snook said that’s a fair claim. “It’s appalling that I masked it to the extent that I used vulnerable children’s aid and religion to do this.”
The pornography helped “normalize” his behavior and became addictive, he said. “Enough was never enough. …It became this eating frenzy, just a total loss of control.”
‘Never again’
There is an “ever-present sadness and regret” about his actions when he looks in the mirror that at some point he would try to “exorcise,” he said.
But “letting them exist for me is what motivates me to say ‘never again.'”
Snook told the board that he has “worked hard to be honest with [himself] and with others … and to be ready for parole when that happens.”
His release plan included staying in the Abbotsford area, living in lodgings and looking for “suitable” work, possibly in the cleaning industry. His support network includes his sister, he said.
“I look forward to taking the next steps in my life when given this opportunity.”
Snook has previously been granted several escorted furloughs while serving his sentence, including 2019 trip to St. John to attend his father’s funeral and several outings in the Abbotsford, BC area to attend church.
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