REGINA - The National Parole Board is continuing day parole for a pedophile who drowned a five-year-old Calgary girl and stuffed her body into a garbage can nearly three decades ago.
The board says Harold Smeltzer has remained a manageable risk since he was released to a Regina halfway house last November.
Smeltzer will have "expanded access" to the community for the next six months and be allowed to leave the Regina facility without an escort.
"The board is very cognizant of the gravity and brutality of your offences," the board wrote in its decision released this week.
But it ruled Smeltzer has made progress towards rehabilitation.
He was previously not allowed to leave the halfway house without being accompanied by his parole officer and community corrections liaison worker.
Police were alerted to every outing, but Smeltzer posed no concerns, said the board.
Smeltzer served 27 years of a life sentence for the first-degree murder of Kimberley Thompson, who was snatched off a street while on her way to kindergarten in January 1980.
Smeltzer was also convicted in sexual assaults involving other girls and women.
The board said he has further admitted to sexually assaulting 40 young girls over five years.
He has been diagnosed as a pedophile with anti-social personality disorder.
The conditions of his day parole state Smeltzer must not be alone with anyone under the age of 18, stay away from public places where they are children and continue with psychological counselling.
