Ottawa - A former Erin resident who once led a sex cult made up of teenage boys has been sent back to prison for threatening to kill his parole officer.
Kenneth James McMurray, 38, pleaded guilty in an Ottawa courtroom Monday to uttering death threats and breaching a long-term supervision order. He was sentenced to three years.
The supervision order was imposed by Guelph Justice Norman Douglas in 1999, after McMurray pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual assault. Court heard he led a group said to be based on the Wiccan religion, and forced his young followers to engage in sex acts with each other and with him in the basement of his parents’ home.
The boys, aged 14 to 16, were plied with marijuana and beaten if they questioned McMurray, who they believed was a supreme spiritual being who could harm them at will.
In imposing sentence, Douglas called McMurray’s actions "diabolical."
McMurray was sentenced to four years in prison for his local crimes and deemed a long-term offender, which allowed him to be placed on mandatory supervision for five years following his release. The supervision order has been suspended several times after repeated breaches, including a 2004 robbery for which McMurray was sentenced to nearly four more years in prison.
An Ottawa court heard this week McMurray told staff at a halfway house he wanted to kill his parole officer.
He later told police while he knew it was wrong to make the threats, he would not have harmed the parole officer and rather was angry at Corrections Canada when he made the comments.
