Teen's killers denied parole

Warning: This story contains disturbing details of a murder.

One of two teens who lured and murdered Langford teen Kimberly Proctor in 2010 has been denied day parole by the Parole Board of Canada on the grounds that he poses a high risk to reoffend.

Cameron Moffat was 17 when he and 16-year-old Kruse Wellwood lured 18-year-old Proctor to Wellwood’s home in Langford, where they tied her up, gagged her, sexually assaulted her, beat her, suffocated her and mutilated her body with a knife over several hours.

They put her body in a freezer, and the next day travelled to the Galloping Goose trail and set it on fire. Proctor’s badly burned body was found under a bridge on the trail on March 19, 2010.

Moffat and Wellwood, who were sentenced as adults, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and were given life sentences in 2011 with no possibility of parole for 10 years. They were both eligible for day parole in 2018.

Wellwood was previously denied day parole.

In his first appearance before a parole board on Friday, Moffat made a request for day parole and an escorted temporary absence to visit a minimum security institution in Mission, where he hopes to be transferred in the future.

The parole board approved the temporary absence, which will take place under the supervision of a correctional officer and member of his case-management team, but denied Moffat day parole, saying he poses a high risk to reoffend and did not have a viable release plan.

Moffat’s parole officer recommended approving the temporary absence and denying day parole. He said Moffat has demonstrated positive behaviour while incarcerated and has undergone trauma counselling and completed a sex-offender program, but a “slow, cautious release” is the best approach, as any release will result in future suffering for Proctor’s family, the parole officer said.

He said the four-hour temporary absence will allow Moffat to become acquainted with a new case-management team at the minimum-security institution.

During the hearing, which was observed by Proctor’s family, Moffat sat opposite two parole board members with his back to observers and fidgeted throughout.

Moffat has been out of his institution on medical escorted absences, but the temporary absence will be his first outing without restraints. He will be escorted while travelling between institutions and while at the minimum-security facility.

Asked about the biggest change he has made during his sentence, Moffat said he has had to alter his “entire outlook” and develop techniques to deal with the impacts of sexual abuse and violence during his childhood, which led to him bottling up his feelings and exploding.

He said “a lifelong trek of wrong paths” and unresolved issues led him to murder Proctor, describing his role in the offence as passive and supporting Wellwood, whom he met when he was around 13. Moffat said cowardice prevented him from stopping Wellwood.

“I met someone equally or more damaged in their own fashion, and it created an unhealthy cocktail,” he said.

Moffat said planning the murder was “a source of excitement” and gave him an outlet to release “everything I had pent up over years,” but he didn’t believe it would really happen.

However, Moffat said he takes responsibility for Proctor’s murder.

“From reading your file, I get the sense you loved your co-convicted and would do anything to make him happy,” said parole board member Ryan Nash.

Moffat agreed he had an unhealthy attachment to Wellwood, but said he has not had contact with him since 2021.

Parole board members said they were concerned about Moffat’s “protracted affiliation and infatuation” with Wellwood and his ongoing justification of his participation in Proctor’s murder.

Proctor’s aunt and grandmother addressed the hearing, describing their “never-ending tale of heartache.”

Proctor’s grandmother said she still wakes up “gasping air,” thinking about what Moffat and Wellwood did to her granddaughter.

What Moffat did was “too despicable,” she said. “Only a very evil mind could come up with it. The only thing I can say to the parole board hearing is how would you feel if he were in a room with your daughter?”