High-risk offender re-arrested by Vancouver police

Vancouver police say they have re-arrested a high-risk offender who was wanted Canada-wide, a day after he failed to return to his halfway house.

Johnny Walkus, 37, obtained statutory release from prison Thursday and was ordered to live at a halfway house in Vancouver.

Police said he left shortly before 1:30 p.m. for a meeting with his parole officer, but didn't show up. 

On Friday, police said Walkus was located in the Downtown Eastside and re-arrested.

The search for Walkus was one of several incidents this week involving a repeat offender in Vancouver. 

On Thursday, police sent out a news release saying they had arrested high-risk sex offender Randall Hopley, not long after he was released from prison the same day. 

Two days before that, on Tuesday, police said the suspect involved in an assault on the Vancouver seawall last month had been released from a medical facility, where he was under supervision, and will be living under house arrest in Vancouver.

And on Monday, convicted sex offender Hartley Ronald Duckhorn, 35, was arrested and charged after a woman was attacked by a stranger in a Stanley Park bathroom. The latest charges against him have not been proven in court.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim has called for "concrete action" from the provincial and federal governments around the incidents.

"Law enforcement agencies have done their job in identifying suspects and making arrests, but the judicial system is repeatedly letting victims down by allowing those with a high risk to reoffend back into the public," Sim said on Thursday.