Sam Cooper (Vancouver Province) – A former Alberta Mountie jailed for child porn offences and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Vancouver has died in a federal prison in Agassiz of a believed suicide.
On Friday, 54-year-old Warren Robert Allen of Vancouver was found unresponsive in his cell by prison guards, and later pronounced dead at Chilliwack General Hospital, prison officials said Monday.
A source told The Province that Allen died of a self-inflicted wound, however assistant warden Brenda Miller said for privacy reasons she could not disclose circumstances of the death. Chilliwack RCMP Cpl. Tammy Hollingsworth said no foul play is suspected, and police are not investigating Allen’s death.
In January, Allen was sentenced to three years, three months, after pleading guilty to one count of possession of child porn for the purpose of distribution and one count of sexual assault.
He was arrested in May 2010 after police executed a search warrant on Allen’s Vancouver apartment, and found 27,000 images of children under the age of five being sexually abused, after reviewing just 200,000 of 840,000 images on his computer.
Allen’s sexual assault victim, who can only be identified by the initials K.R. due to a publication ban, was discovered after police found that Allen had chatted with the boy online and lured him to his apartment.
Allen, who was HIV-positive, arranged to have an HIV-positive male friend pick up the boy and bring him to Allen’s West End apartment, where the two men sexually assaulted the youth in September 2009.
Later, Allen bragged about the “tag-team” sexual assault on a chat line.
In sentencing, B.C. Supreme Court Madam Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein found that mitigating factors in the case included that Allen has no prior criminal record and was a “very intelligent, high-functioning and high-achieving” man.
Allen served as an RCMP officer in Alberta from 1978 to 1984, the judge noted, before leaving to get his law degree from Queen’s University.
Allen’s death is not the first at Mountain Institution involving inmates imprisoned for child sex crimes. In March 2008, Michael Andrew Gibbon, 39, who was serving a sentence for child pornography offences, was beaten to death during a prison riot.
And in March 2007, James Patrick Jones, 55 — convicted in the 1987 first-degree murder and sexual assault of three-year-old Stacie Harker — was found unresponsive in his cell by prison guards.
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“This site is RCMP Watch. Not teacher watch or lawyer watch.” Calvin Lawrence
The headline is: Former Alberta Mountie found dead in B.C. federal prison”
“We provide a forum for open discussion and welcome constructive viewpoints and contributions.”
RCMPWatch.
The article is biased in slanting the headline to reflect the miniscule RCMP component, consistent with their zeal to discredit the organization. The facts of the situation do not support a bias against the RCMP, and in fact the article should be fair and balanced according to media ethics which it is not.
Pointing out the bias and germane points does not detract from the purpose of the site. An observation that supports or adds balance to a viewpoint is fair commentary and your dismissal of it highlights your bias in not honestly engaging in objective analysis of the comment.
“When high profile negative incidents involving RCMP members come to light the media report on it.” Calvin Lawrence
Nice segue and motherhood statement. They certainly do that, however, would you not aver that in this article there is no high profile negative incident about the RCMP? Your assertion vis a vis hiring practices notwithstanding.
“The RCMP uses the media very skilfully to promote and advance their image.” Calvin Lawrence
I am not convinced I would agree with the “skilful” part, however, the RCMP does get reported on and also pro-actively advises the media of investigations undertaken against its members far more than other departments in the federal govt or other police departments.
“The RCMP can’t have it both ways.” Calvin Lawrence
When the media continually contextualize the RCMP in the manner noted above, they breach their ethics. Your support of this underscores your own bias. “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”
― Joseph Goebbels
In simple terms Calvin, if you are going to go back 38 years in a fellows past to report on a following six year portion, in fairness it behooves you mention the other 27 subsequent to the six.
This site is RCMP Watch. Not teacher watch or lawyer watch.
The RCMP uses the media very skilfully to promote and advance their image. When high profile negative incidents involving RCMP members come to light the media report on it.
The RCMP can’t have it both ways.
That question may be germane to discussions in respect of hiring practices within legal and ethical auspices, but it does not address the issue of the media dredging. As I am sure you are aware, the penchant for the media to chastise the RCMP at every turn with no balanced mien is unacceptable, as it is with any subject of reporting.
Your directed query shows bias and should have read: how do people like this become police officers and lawyers to begin with. A lawyer is an officer of the court and also part of the justice system. You perpetuate the media dredging with your unbalanced question. Indeed, how do lovers of child pornography become teachers?
One could opine that a revealing question would be why he was only a police officer for 6 years. Perhaps the organization moved him out for some reason, whereas his tenure in law was extensive. That makes the question of his length of service cogent to the topic.
It doesn’t matter how long he was an RCMP Member vs how long he was a lawyer. The question is how do people like this become police officers to begin with.
I would opine he was more of a former lawyer than a member of the RCMP. However, the fact that his chosen profession for 27 years was the practice of law is overshadowed by the fact he spent 6 years as a police officer decades ago in the eyes of some. I find the practice of dredging objectionable no matter what the design. The media undermines what little credibility they have with such displays of pap.