An unrepentant sex offender labelled by police one of the most prolific online sex predators caught in Canada was too dangerous for early release from prison when he last appeared before the parole board, but he’ll soon be free. Mark Bedford (inset), a 29-year-old Ontario man, was ordered detained behind bars until he serves every day of his latest sentence, a 26-month term imposed in 2013. Corrections Canada will have to release him when his sentence expires August 22, 2015 and that should alarm anyone in his path.
I’ve been writing about Bedford since his first conviction in 2008. In 2009, I attended his first parole hearing held inside medium-security Warkworth Institution, a federal prison near Campbellford, Ontario. I had the distinct impression it was the first true glimpse of his deviance. He is remorseless, emotionally flat and deceptive and blames his victims. He seems upset only by the fact that he was caught. During the parole hearing, the words ‘psychopath’ and ‘psychopathy’ weren’t uttered, but I couldn’t help but feel that a far more disturbing diagnosis of Bedford was yet to be written. Under grilling by the parole board members, Bedford admitted he had a “big problem” but he also continued to duck blame for his acts. It was revealed that he tried to trick sex offender experts in prison who sought to assess him. In 2008 Bedford was convicted of 10 crimes, including commit/incite bestiality, luring a child under age 14 by computer, several child pornography offences, two charges of extortion and criminal harassment – though authorities believe he committed many more crimes and may have preyed on hundreds of victims. Experts who have assessed and treated Bedford concluded he is a pedophile but they aren’t certain if he prefers girls who are pre- or post-pubescent. The victims in his first convictions in 2008 were aged nine to 15.
At the 2009 parole hearing, Bedford explained that his online deviance began at age 16, when he started looking at photographs. He sometimes received pictures from older, experienced online pornographers. At age 19, from the safety of his computer screen, he sought to force young girls to perform sex acts in front of webcams, typically by hacking into their online accounts and masquerading as friends. He would convince them to undress, then use the photos he captured to blackmail the girls into performing more explicit acts. Bedford said he did it, “for control” and “for my own excitement.” He could not clearly explain why he moved on from pictures to victims. “That was more real at the time, live,” he said. “You could talk to them.”
He grudgingly acknowledged, as a parole board member grilled him, that he masturbated each time a girl performed for him, though he mumbled through parts of his answers, in apparent embarrassment. Bedford was asked if there were more than 63 victims who are named in his files.
“Ahhh, possibly,” he answered. “I’m not sure though, I can’t recall every one of them.”
Bedford was charged with a sexual assault before he went to prison in 2008 but the charge was withdrawn.
He told the parole board, during the 2009 hearing, that it was consensual sex at his parents’ home with a 16-year-old girl, when he was 19. The girl was likely “confused” about his age, he claimed.
“She started it,” he said. “She exposed her breast.” They began to fool around. “We kissed, I, ah, masturbated her, got her off,” he said. “Afterward nothing else happened.”
The girl went to police and Bedford was charged. He claimed that she reported the incident because he had hijacked her online account after she would not leave him alone.
Here’s the Kingston Whig-Standard story from June 2013, when Bedford was sentenced to 26 months in prison, his second penitentiary term:
By Elliot Ferguson
A convicted sex offender was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for breaking the conditions of his release.
Mark Bedford, 27, pleaded guilty to two counts of breach of recognizance related to where he was living following his March 2011 release from a three-year sentence for Internet-related sex crimes.
Bedford, wearing a blue, short-sleeved plaid shirt, declined to say anything as Justice Allan Letourneau accepted a last-minute joint submission from Crown attorney Gerard Laarhuis and defence lawyer David Crowe.
“While he was in breach, he did not go out of his way to commit a breach,” Crowe said.
Crowe said Bedford had contacted police shortly after being released from prison but there was no record of that meeting.
Bedford received credit for nine months of pre-trial custody, meaning he is to serve 27 months.
After his 2011 release, Bedford was required to notify police if he was living with a child and was prohibited from being alone with a child without another adult in the room.
The court determined he violated both of those conditions because he was living in the same residence as a child in the months after his release from prison.
Bedford had been charged with sexual assault and sexual interference but those charges were withdrawn Tuesday.
Laarhuis said there was not enough reliable evidence to ensure a conviction on those charges.
“There wasn’t a reasonable expectation of conviction,” Laarhuis said.
Laarhuis said he was pleased with the sentence because the maximum penalty Bedford faced was four years — two years per count.
In 2008, Bedford pleaded guilty to 10 crimes, including luring, related to sexually exploiting girls on the Internet.
Bedford’s illegal activity involved hundreds of girls on two continents, who were extorted into performing sex acts in front of webcams. In one case, he coerced a 12-year-old girl into simulating sex with a family dog.
He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2008 and the next year was denied parole.
Parole board members noted Bedford had been diagnosed as a pedophile and was likely to commit a new sex crime involving a child before his sentence expired.
He served his full sentence.
Laarhuis said Bedford had refused counselling while in prison earlier.
“Mr. Bedford is essentially an untreated sex offender,” Laarhuis said.
When Bedford is released in August 2015, his sentence will have expired so he won’t be subject to any conditions and he won’t be required to report to a community parole officer. It’s possible that police in the jurisdiction where he plans to live may seek a judicial order (like this one imposed on him at release in 2011) that gives authorities some ability to track Bedford and to restrict his activities.
Here’s the written record of the Parole Board of Canada decision August 13, 2014 to keep Bedford locked up until he serves every day of his 26-month sentence (on mobile? click here to read doc):
