Woman in hiding as sex offender released

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This article was published 30/04/2011 (5243 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A young Transcona woman has gone into hiding after learning Friday morning that a convicted sex offender who was stalking her from prison a year ago has been released for a second time.

Amanda Westervelt, 27, said authorities did not warn her about the release today of Kevin Steppan, who has legally changed his name to Timothy Frederick Koltusky.

“Why did no one call me?” Westervelt said.

Police issued a public notice Friday morning, warning the public that a convicted sex offender is being released from Stony Mountain Institution and poses a serious threat to women.

Police said Koltusky, 26, who was previously known as Kevin Scott Steppan, is expected to live in Winnipeg.

Koltusky has previous convictions for sexual assault with a weapon as well as many other criminal offences. Although Koltusky participated in sex-offender treatment programs while in prison, he is still considered a high risk to re-offend.

Steppan, as he was then known, was first released from prison in August 2010. Prior to his release, he had sent letters to Westervelt, claiming to be the father of her son and an imaginary daughter and was looking forward to being with them.

Westervelt obtained a protection order against Koltusky last August, which prohibits him from approaching her, her son or her mother, contacting the three of them, or from coming within two blocks of their home, their workplace, church and school. The order is in force until August 2013.

Westervelt said she remains concerned about her safety.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said.

Westervelt said she was warned in advance last August about Koltusky’s pending release but said she was shocked when authorities did not contact her before police issued their public warning.

RCMP Sgt. Jack Raffle, from the Manitoba Integrated High Risk Sex Offender Unit, a joint task force of the Winnipeg police and the RCMP, which issued the public warning, said individuals in Westervelt’s situation are sometimes warned in advance of a prisoner’s release but it’s not a requirement.

“We try to do it as a courtesy when we can,” Raffle said.

Raffle said the unit issued a release Friday to warn the public Koltusky will be out again and that he changed his name.

Koltusky was arrested in August 2005 following the sexual assaults of two sex-trade workers in downtown Winnipeg. The first victim was taken to a secluded area and punched and kicked several times and her attacker attempted to throw her into the river. The second victim was attacked two days later, when a man took her to a secluded area and then placed a rope around her neck and sexually assaulted her and beat her. She managed to escape.

Manitoba Justice had originally sought to have Koltusky declared a dangerous offender but provincial court Judge Linda Giesbrecht rejected that move in February 2010, saying he deserved another chance to turn his life around.

The Crown tried to invoke the rarely used section of the Criminal Code that allows for an indeterminate sentence on the grounds Koltusky posed an uncontrollable risk to society.

A prominent Saskatchewan psychologist who testified on Koltusky’s behalf, said Koltusky has a serious “personality disorder” and has a long history of behavioural problems, including setting fires, chronic lying and making obscene calls to women. Koltusky also has expressed a fondness for choking women as a means of controlling them.

At the February 2010 hearing, Giesbrecht sentenced Koltusky to nine months in jail, in addition to 41/2 years of pretrial custody, and placed him on 10 years of supervised probation with strict conditions as part of a long-term offender designation.

Westervelt said Koltusky lived in a halfway house following his first release but he was arrested three months ago and returned to custody for violating conditions of the long-term offender designation.

Raffle said Koltusky is being released because his parole had been revoked only for 90 days.

Koltusky is white, with blond hair and blue eyes, about 6-1, weighing 141 pounds.

 

 

 

— with files from Mike McIntyre

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca