By ROBERT MATAS
Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER, B.C. — A borderline mentally retarded man in prison indefinitely for some of the most heinous sex crimes with children imaginable was killed during a riot this weekend at Mountain Institution, a federal penitentiary 120 kilometres east of Vancouver.
Michael Gibbon, 39, who has spent the past 11 years in custody, had been convicted of sexual assault of young children and of possessing child pornography. His victims included a young girl who was three years old. He was caught after he offered to sell photos on an Internet site that police said offered “kiddie porn.”
The riot at Mountain Institution broke out around 9:45 p.m. Saturday in the gymnasium, Dave Lefebvre, a spokesman for Correctional Service of Canada, said yesterday in an interview. The disturbance began with inmates breaking windows and threatening staff members.
They subsequently started assaulting each other.
Mr. Gibbon, who has been in custody since February, 1997, was attacked and pronounced dead at the institution. A second inmate who was not identified was sent to a hospital outside the prison compound with injuries that were non-life-threatening.
The reason for the disturbance or what sparked the attack on Mr. Gibbon was not yet known. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, a joint police force in Metro Vancouver, has been called in and has begun to look into the circumstances related to the death, Mr. Lefebvre said. The Correctional Service and the Coroner’s Office will also investigate.
“At this point it is way too early to speculate what started this,” Mr. Lefebvre said.
No correctional officers were involved in the death of the inmate, he also said. The riot was the third disturbance in recent months at Mountain Institution. The prison was locked down in January after blades from two kitchen knives went missing. Two weeks earlier, a prisoner was assaulted.
Criminologist Neil Boyd of Simon Fraser University, said yesterday in an interview that sex offenders, and especially child molesters, are among the lowest in the prison hierarchy and are often in protective custody. (Mr. Gibbon was held in the general population and not protective custody, a prison official said later.)
“Historically, victims in riots are sex offenders and informants,” Prof. Boyd said. “It’s really not different from the morality that most of us have, in the sense that the kind of crimes we express our greatest revulsion for are crimes ... that are particularly predatory with respect to vulnerable people.”
Mr. Gibbon had lived in Chilliwack before his incarceration for sex crimes, according a B.C. Supreme Court ruling in 2005 that declared him a dangerous offender.
He was convicted in 1992 for sexual interference with a young child and sentenced to three months in jail. In 1997, he was convicted of sexual assault, production of child pornography and possession of child pornography for the purpose of distribution, and bestiality. He was also convicted in 1997 of a sexual assault in 1985, when he was 17 years old.
Mr. Gibbon was declared a dangerous offender in 1998 but the decision was set aside in 2003. He was declared a dangerous offender for a second time in 2005 after failing to persuade a B.C. Supreme Court judge that he could control his strong sex drive if he was allowed to participate in a trial program of anti-libidinal medication.
Evidence heard in court in 2005 provided no indication of dysfunction in the relations between his mother and father. Nor was there evidence that Mr. Gibbon was abused, the court ruling stated. Mr. Gibbon had a history of behavioural problems that began while he was in school.
On at least two occasions, his mother referred him to a mental health facility, identifying his problem as a “very focused interest in young girls.”
Copyright 2008 Globe and Mail