A dangerous offender by almost every measure

Three years after the shocking murder of high school student Serena Vermeersch by a lifetime criminal, he has finally pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Raymond Lee Caissie, 46, entered the plea in court on Sept. 14. His guilty plea may be the only decent thing he has done in the past 25 years,

Caissie was let out of jail in June, 2013 after serving a 22-year sentence for raping a woman in Abbotsford at knifepoint in 1991. It was a particularly brutal case.

He confronted her while she was working at a museum in Abbotsford, abducted her, sexually assaulted her and left her tied to a tree, but not before making her withdraw money from her account at a bank machine. He also stole her car. Two days later, he robbed a woman pushing a two-year-old child in a stroller. That incident took place in a park.

Caissie had been in trouble before that. He was in and out of jail from the time he was 15. He was released from prison a short time before the Abbotsford case, after being convicted of kidnapping.
He first got into trouble for assaulting his Kindergarten teacher. When he was sentenced in 1992 for the Abbotsford rape, the court was told that he had begun his sexual misconduct with his sister when she was about six and he was 12. He was only charged for his conduct after he became 18 in 1979.
Caissie was eventually let out of jail in June, 2013 after serving his full sentence – a rarity in Canada. At the time of his release, corrections officials issued a public warning about his release, saying he was a likely risk to re-offend. At that time, Dianne Watts, who was then the mayor of Surrey, expressed her concerns that he was living in Surrey and also said he was likely to reoffend.
Their predictions, sadly, came true. Within three months, he attacked and killed Vermeersch, a 17-year-old Sullivan Heights high school student. He left her body in a remote area not far from the school. She had last been seen getting on a bus at 128 Street and 64 Avenue on Sept. 15, 2014.

Thankfully, most people who end up in prison for serious crimes do get help. When they are released, many are able to lead productive lives out of prison. Unfortunately, there are a few such as Caissie who do not.

In his particular case, he was red flagged by authorities. He had not responded to treatment in prison. Back in 1993, when the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld his sentence for the Abbotsford rape, it stated that Caissie needed to be treated for his deeply-rooted psychiatric problems.

“The sentencing principle of protection of the public is of overwhelming importance in this case,” Justice David Hinds said at the time. “The general public, and particularly women, are entitled to be protected from the depradations of the appellant (Caissie).”

The trial judge in B.C. Supreme Court, Justice Stuart Leggatt, said the pre-sentence report on Caissie by probation officials “was one of the most pessimistic pre-sentence reports I have read in my years on the bench.

“He is a person unable to establish any insight into his behaviour . . . The offender presents a very serious danger to the public at large,” Leggatt added.

There has been no evidence presented in the Vermeersch case suggesting that Caissie has somehow learned to live in the outside world. His record shows that, shortly after he gets out of prison, he gets into serious trouble. Each offence is far worse than the last.

If ever there was a case for an offender being designated a dangerous offender, it would seem Caissie fits the bill.