Sadistic child molester dies behind bars

It's unlikely many tears will be shed for Basil Madden, on the occasion of his death at age 62. In 1995, Madden held a 12-year-old boy hostage in a motel room in Kingston, Ontario, and repeatedly raped and beat the boy.

That was the most disturbing scene and the most vile set of circumstances that I've ever investigated that a human could do to a human.

That's what veteran Kingston police officer Brian Cookman, who put Madden away, told me, in 1996. That year, after Madden was convicted of raping the young boy, he was declared a dangerous offender. That's Canada's harshest punishment. It means you can be held behind bars indefinitely, until you're considered no longer a danger to society. Most dangerous offenders die behind bars. That's precisely what happened to Madden. Today, he died of natural causes, while being held at the regional treatment centre, a psychiatric facility for federal convicts that operates inside the walls of maximum-security Kingston Penitentiary. Corrections Canada said Madden was at the regional hospital at Kingston Pen. An inquest will be held into his death.

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