Prison photos of B.C. serial killer show up on MySpace website
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 | 5:05 PM PT
The Canadian Press
Corrections Canada has launched an internal investigation to find out how prison pictures of notorious child killer Clifford Olson made their way onto the social networking website MySpace.
A profile on the popular website under the name Clifford Olson contains photographs, personal essays, and news stories, many of which are available on other websites devoted to the convicted murderer — including a letter that is almost 20 years old.
Part of the MySpace page featuring pictures of Clifford Olson. (MySpace) On Tuesday, a relative of one of Olson's victims came across the profile while surfing the web and drew it to the attention of the media. The MySpace page was no longer available Wednesday.
John Brent, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, said Corrections Canada does not have any authority over the website but had asked MySpace.com to take it down.
Offenders such as Olson do not have access to the internet in jail, Brent said.
Olson is also under a court-ordered gag order that prevents him from contacting the families of his victims or the media, after he repeatedly sent letters from behind bars detailing his crimes.
The handful of photos on the MySpace site include widely available media shots of Olson, as well as dated photos of him inside prison, posing and using exercise equipment.
The bulk of the journal entries, titled The Clifford Olson Story, are dated June 1989 and are available on another website devoted to the killer.
Earlier Wednesday, the MySpace profile was changed from a public page to private, meaning only people designated as "friends" could see the site.
Olson's MySpace friends include profiles set up under the names of a wide range of serial killers, both alive and deceased, as well as Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus and Madonna.
An artist's sketch of Clifford Olson at his faint-hope hearing in 1997. Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh sent a letter Wednesday to Day's office, demanding an investigation into the website.
"I believe that any such investigation must also probe how recent photographs of Mr. Olson ended up on the website and whether any employee of Corrections Canada was involved," Dosanjh said.
Olson was arrested in 1981 and charged with murdering 11 British Columbia children and teenagers in the 1980s. Because he has served more than 25 years in prison, he is eligible for a parole hearing every two years. His last review was in 2006.
MySpace did not return calls for comment.
