A British Columbia man convicted of killing a 14-year-old schoolgirl in 1997 was denied parole on Friday.

Warren Glowatski, 23, is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder in connection with Reena Virk's drowning in 1997 near Victoria.

Reena Virk
Reena Virk

At a National Parole Board hearing in Mission, B.C., Glowatski asked for day parole. He said he's a changed man as a result of the discovery of his aboriginal ancestry and his realization of the pain he caused.

But the board denied the request, saying he had not sufficiently dealt with the violent episodes in his life prior to the Virk killing.

Kelly Ellard (file)
Kelly Ellard (file)

Virk's mother had not objected to Glowatski's application for parole.

A woman who was also accused of second-degree murder in the case, Kelly Ellard, will go to trial for the third time in 2004.

Ellard was found guilty at her first trial, but the decision was overturned later on a technicality. A second trial was abandoned as a mistrial in July 2003.

In a crime that attracted national attention for its apparent callous brutality, Virk was lured to a bridge in a Victoria suburb where she was beaten and abandoned by a group of teens.

Prosecutors alleged Ellard, then 15, and Glowatski, returned to beat her unconscious, and then drowned her.