Ailing cop killer James Hutchison denied transfer

Imprisoned geriatric double cop killer James Hutchison (inset in 1974) is staying put in higher security. The ruthless murderer, who is serving a life sentence at medium-security Bath Institution, a federal prison just west of Kingston, Ontario, has not been moved to a minimum-security prison as scheduled because he's undergoing treatment for cancer, sources have told me. In May, I revealed the plan by Corrections Canada to quietly ship Hutchison, 81, to a comfy, minimum-security prison in central Ontario, Beaver Creek Institution, where there are no fences and no armed guards. Transfer to a minimum-security pen is a stepping stone to release for convicts, so news of Hutchison's pending move sparked anger, particularly since he escaped in 2000 when he was at another minimum-security Kingston prison.

Dean Secord, president of the 400-member New Brunswick Police Association, condemned the plan to move Hutchison.

"This person should be in a segregation cell for 23 and a half hours a day and let him rot there," Secord told me. He said Hutchison is no less dangerous because of his age. "He's got nothing to lose," said Secord, a constable with the Saint John police force. "He hasn't seen freedom and now he's going to have the opportunity to escape. "There's no doubt in my mind that if he escapes and it comes right down to it, he would kill again." The retired Mountie who caught Hutchison, Dale Swansburg, told me he thinks Hutchison is still a threat.

Hutchison and accomplice Richard Ambrose murdered two Moncton, New Brunswick police officers, Michael O'Leary and Aurele Bourgeois, in cold blood in 1974. The killers dug shallow graves, pushed the officers in and shot them in the head. They covered the bodies and fled but were soon caught. They were sentenced to hang but the sentences were commuted to life in prison after Canada abolished the dealth penalty. For the full story of the killings and the complete parole records of Hutchison and Ambrose, see this previous post.

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