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Child kidnapper threatened to slit his own throat in halfway house

Brian Abrosimo had his release revoked in August
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A violent sex offender who attacked a Langley girl in 2004 lost his last few months of community release after he threatened to slit his own throat during a standoff with halfway house staff in Vancouver in August.

Abrosimo, now 57, was serving a 14-year sentence for the 2004 abduction of a young Langley girl from a rural Aldergrove road.

He used his van to knock down two children who were riding bicycles along 256 Street, kidnapping the 11-year-old girl, taping her eyes and mouth and driving her to Surrey, where he sexually assaulted her.

She managed to escape from the van and run to a nearby home.

Her friend was left behind in a ditch with cuts, bruises and a broken wrist.

A month before that, he had kidnapped, handcuffed, and sexually assaulted a sex trade worker.

READ MORE: Child kidnapper and rapids Brian Abrosimo has release conditions relaxed

In 2017, Abrosimo was released to a halfway house, first in the Okanagan.

When he moved to a Vancouver facility last year, the Vancouver Police Department issued a warning about him.

A Parole Board of Canada report on a recent incident indicated that Abrosimo’s first year out of prison went well, but there have since been multiple incidents.

READ MORE: Convicted child kidnapper remains threat to public: VPD

The most recent took place on Aug. 12, 2020, when police notified Abrosimo’s parole officer that he was observed in Vancouver playing music, doing tai chi and dancing shirtless while consuming medical cannabis.

He was also socializing with an unknown woman; one of Abrosimo’s conditions is that he is to report all relationships to his parole supervisor.

Abrosimo was confined to his Community Residential Facility (CRF), also known as a halfway house.

The next morning, he began yelling at the CRF staff, pushed his mattress against the door, and put a knife to his neck, threatening to slit his own throat.

The CRF staff got him to hand over the knife and police arrested him. The staff at the halfway house withdrew their support for him and he was taken to Vancouver Police Department cells.

This is not the first time Abrosimo has had various release conditions revoked. According to the Parole Board report, he did well for his first year after his 2017 move to a halfway house, but after that had several issues, including arguments and fights with fellow inmates, and an incident in which he vandalized another inmate’s car.

The board decided to revoke Abrosimo’s “one chance statutory release,” sending him back into custody.

“The Board notes you remain assessed as a high risk to reoffend and finds you lacked the necessary internal controls to effectively manage this risk,” the report says.

Partly because of the recent incidents, and because he is still considered a risk to reoffend, the Parole Board also imposed a full year of a residency requirement on Abrosimo during his first year after his sentence ended.

Abrosimo’s prison sentence was officially over on Oct. 15 this year, but he is now subject to a 10-year Long Term Supervision Order.

The board required that Abrosimo continue to live in a halfway house or a community correctional centre.

He must continue a mental health treatment program to address his sexual deviancy and drug issues, and he remains banned from being around anywhere children under 18 may gather, including parks, swimming pools, and rec centres, being around any female child under 18 without a responsible adult approved in advance by his parole supervisor, having no contact with the victims’ families, and not being allowed anywhere in Langley or Abbotsford.

He also has to report any relationship with a woman and is banned from using any drugs or alcohol.

The conditions will remain in effect for the full 10 years of the LTSO, or until the board agrees to modify them.



Matthew Claxton

About the Author: Matthew Claxton

Raised in Langley, as a journalist today I focus on local politics, crime and homelessness.
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