Man that killed RCMP officer gets day parole after serving just over half his sentence

Kenneth Fenton was sentenced in April 2016 for smashing into West Shore RCMP Const. Sarah Beckett’s police cruiser while evading police. The force of the crash killed Beckett, leaving her husband a widower and her two sons motherless.

Police, at the time, said Fenton’s blood-alcohol level was three times over the legal limit when he ran a red light while fleeing police.

He was sentenced to four years in prison, thereafter.

However, after serving just over half of his sentence, Fenton has now been granted day parole, a decision which Beckett’s widowed husband is calling “disgusting,” reports Global News.

“To me, if any criminal wants to get out, he should have to face a parole board in person and the victim’s family, and he did not do that,” he said Friday, hours after being notified of the parole board’s decision.

“It’s disgusting.”

Fenton first received limited day parole in January to “attend alcohol abuse treatment.” That parole is now being extended, a decision which didn’t result from any parole board hearing, but a decision which resulted from talk had behind closed doors.

The terms of Fenton’s parole include several conditions, such as “including restrictions from driving and using or purchasing drugs and alcohol.”

Beckett’s husband is understandably outraged over the decision and says that laws surrounding impaired driving need to be more severe, both to set an example and so that they more accurately reflect the severity of the crimes committed while under the influence.

“I don’t believe in Canada’s values anymore,” he said. “These are outdated laws.”