New Brunswick

Cult killer denied parole

Convicted killer and cult leader Roch Theriault has been denied parole. He's from Quebec, but is in his 13th year of a life sentence at Dorchester Penitentiary.

Convicted killer and cult leader Roch Theriault has been denied parole. He's from Quebec, but is in his 13th year of a life sentence at Dorchester Penitentiary.

One of his victims, Gabrielle Lavallee, was at Thursday's parole board hearing.

"You can see my face. I'm so glad. I'm really, really, really glad."

In 1989, Lavallee survived a vicious attack by Roch Theriault. He cut off her right arm with a chainsaw. She's relieved Theriault will stay behind bars.

Theriault was sentenced to life in prison in 1989. By then, he was infamous in Quebec. He started a religious cult there in 1987 and lived with eight concubines, his 26 children and several followers.

Lavallee was one of his commune wives. Now, she calls him a monster.

"This man is a very subtle, extremely manipulative. He's a psychopath. To me, to my eyes, he's a psychopath."

Theriault is convicted of three assaults and one murder. In that gruesome killing, he partially disemboweled the victim with a kitchen knife. She was another of his wives.

Theriault applied for parole but made an unusual request at this hearing. He asked not to be released.

"It appeared from what I heard that he was scared to be released into the community given that he was a cult leader and so on," says Brian Chase of the National Parole Board.

Despite that, three of Theriault's wives continue to make conjugal visits bearing him more children.

That's something Lavallee can't understand.

"It's deplorable. It is very sad that those girls are still under his power."

The parole board says Theriault wouldn't be released anyway. He's still a risk to others and has drug and alcohol problems.

Theriault will be up for parole in another two years. But Lavallee says he doesn't deserve to see the light of day. She'll be at any future parole hearings to say just that.