Canada's deadliest drunk driver freed from prison : Cancrime

"I don't care if anyone is dead," Scott said, as he was pried from the wreck of the stolen car he had just plowed into another car, killing four people, including three children. He was unlicensed and his blood-alcohol level was double the legal limit.
The deadly crash happened Nov. 22, 1998, near Kingston, Ontario. Scott was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison after he pleaded guilty to four charges of impaired driving causing death and two charges of impaired driving causing bodily harm. Today marks Scott's statutory release date, meaning he's freed from prison to serve the final third of his sentence in the community, under conditions (his parole records appear below). It's the the third time he's been freed on statutory release since the crash. The previous two times he ignored the orders of judges and parole officials and committed new crimes and was sent back to prison, with nearly three more years tacked onto his sentence.

In the 1998 crash, Scott killed four members of one family, 26-year-old Christopher Kilminster, his sons, Christopher, 5, Bradley, 4, and their cousin, Jamie Lee Rattray, 14. Kilminster's wife and two-year-old son were hurt, but survived. Scott suffered only minor injuries.

Sharon Rattray lost three grandchildren and her son-in-law. She's featured prominently in my account of Scott's release that appears in today's Kingston Whig-Standard. The full story appears after this audio clip from the interview with Rattray. She told me that she has tried to move on with her life, but painful memories linger.

From the May 28 Kingston Whig-Standard:

Usually it's police, not grandmothers, who issue warnings about freed convicts who pose a threat in the community.
The release from prison of Kevin John Scott prompted this caution from Sharon Rattray.
"I would hope that people will be aware of who he is and what he does and to be careful," Rattray told theWhig-Standard.
The Harrowsmith woman is intimately and painfully aware of the menace presented by Scott, 42, who is due for statutory release today. It allows him to serve the last third of his penitentiary sentence in the community under supervision.
On a Sunday evening 10 and a half years ago, he killed four members of Rattray's family in a drunk-driving crash that deprived her of three grandchildren and a son-in-law.
The painful memory is always just beneath the surface.
"It comes and goes for sure," she said. "It's something you never forget ... the least little thing can trigger a memory and it's like it just happened yesterday."
Yesterday was Nov. 22, 1998.
Scott was barrelling south on Hwy. 38, driving alone in a stolen black Pontiac Firebird. He was unlicensed and his blood-alcohol level was double the legal limit.
At 8 p. m., Scott veered across the centre line just south of Harrowsmith and collided head on with a northbound car carrying six people.
Police investigators said it was one of the most "explosive" collisions they had ever seen.
Scott told a firefighter prying him from the wreck: "I don't care if anyone is dead."
He had killed four people: Christopher Kilminster, 26, his sons, Christopher, 5, Bradley, 4, and their cousin, Jamie Lee Rattray, 14.
Kilminster's wife and two-year- old son survived.
"Christopher would have been, in March, I think he would have been 16," Rattray said quietly, her mind imagining a life not lived.
"Sixteen, you know, and you just ... "
She struggled for words.
"It's hard to imagine," she said. "Just starting his life at 16, getting to be an adult."
She is remarkably composed and controlled with whatever emotions rage inside her about what Scott did to her family.
"That's something that he has to live with, but, obviously he's not even thinking about that, so..." she said, without completing her thought.
This is Scott's third release from prison since he pleaded guilty to six criminal charges laid after the 1998 crash, including four counts of impaired driving causing death.
He has repeatedly flouted the orders of judges and parole officials when freed. Scott was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and banned for life from driving.
He was freed on statutory release in August 2004. He was arrested and thrown back in prison in 2006 after a violent assault on his common-law wife.
Scott punched her in the head and banged her head on a sidewalk. She tried to get away. He threw her into a parked truck before grasping her by the neck.
Scott claimed he was trying to prevent his wife from being hurt. Three witnesses contradicted him.
He had 18 months added to his prison sentence.
He was freed on statutory release a second time, in November 2007.
Six months later, Kingston Police caught him behind the wheel, with a driver's licence.
The Ministry of Transportation had issued Scott a new licence because a clerical error made when his birth date was entered into a computer meant the record of his convictions and driving ban weren't revealed.
His defiant attitude was evident in court in June when he told a judge he thought the Transportation Ministry could alter the judge's lifetime driving ban.
"I just thought that was the way it worked," Scott said.
Justice Rommel Masse reimposed the lifetime driving ban.
"I don't care, in future, if you have a hundred driver's licences in your possession," Masse told Scott in court. "You cannot drive."
The judge added another 15 months to Scott's prison sentence but he has again reached the point in his term where he can serve the final third in the community.
He could have been kept behind bars until his sentence expired, if he was considered too dangerous to release.
Corrections Canada can refer dangerous convicts to the National Parole Board for detention hearings.
"They have to make the determination that there's a belief the person could (commit) an offence causing death or serious harm but that's not what happened here," said Carol Sparling, a spokeswoman for the board in Kingston. "There never has been (a referral) in this case."
Because there was no referral, the parole board was powerless to prevent Scott's release. It can only impose conditions.
The board has ordered him not to buy, possess or drink alcohol and he is banned from entering bars, taverns or any other businesses where the primary source of income is the sale of booze.
"Alcohol use is significantly linked to your criminal behaviour," the board wrote, in a document dated May 14.
Scott also is under orders to follow psychiatric and psychological counselling, to take treatment and he's required to tell his parole supervisor about any romantic relationships because of his history of domestic violence.
He's also prohibited from associating with criminals.
"Your criminal record includes offences where you have associated with individuals that have encouraged your criminal activities," the parole board record states.
Sharon Rattray has tried to move on with her life, but Scott's freedom chafes.
"To think that he's carrying on with his life the same as he always has is very distressing, to say the least," she said. "My grandchildren never got a chance to get that far."
A parole record from July 2008, noted that Scott's prognosis for future treatment was "not good," according to a psychologist.
"It bothers me that he's out and that he keeps hurting people," Rattray said.
"I wouldn't want any mother to go through what I've gone through with my daughter and my grandchildren and certainly what my daughter has gone through as a mother, either," she said. "It's one of the most difficult things you could ever do.
"It's really hard to lose children." The parole board did not order Scott
not to drive, noting that a lifetime ban imposed by the court remains in effect.
"It's very easy to drive without your licence and not get caught for a long time, obviously," Rattray said.
All of the parole board-ordered restrictions, including Scott's prohibition against drinking, expire Nov. 30, when his sentence ends.

News coverage of Scott's crimes while on two other releases from prison:
» Scott sentenced to 18 months for violent beating of wife
» Scott earns 15 more months for getting behind the wheel with a new licence

Here is the May 2009 National Parole Board document outlining the conditions imposed on Scott's statutory release: