Friday
January 15, 2016 (Vol. 41 No. 4)
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
A N D
S O U T H
Well-travelled: Cloverdale Minor Hockey alum Tyler yler Basham’s junior-hockey career tookk him to all corners of the United States – from rom Texas to Pennsylvania – before he found a home at Simon Fraser University. i see pag page ge 25
S U R R E Y
w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m
Kuldip Singh Mahal could be sentenced to up to 30 years in U.S. prison
Former youth coach admits sex crime Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
A Surrey soccer coach arrested a year ago in Washington and accused of pursuing sex with a 12-year-old girl has pleaded guilty. According to a news release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice, Kuldip “Kelly” Singh Mahal made the plea Tuesday (Jan. 12) in U.S. District Court in Seattle. A jury trial on the matter had been scheduled to get underway next week.
Mahal, 47, is set to be sentenced on April 1. Under a plea agreement, a prison term of between 78 and 108 months (6½ to nine years) is to be recommended, however, a sentence of up to 30 years is possible. Mahal, who was a volunteer coach for a Surrey United U16 boys team at the time, was arrested Feb. 3, 2015 at a park in Burlington – after crossing into the U.S. at Blaine – where he was expecting to meet a young girl whom he believed he had enticed into
having sex with him. Court documents filed at the time note Mahal had responded to a “casual encounters” post on Craigslist the month before, not realizing he was communicating with an undercover agent. “Mahal believed he had been corresponding with a 12-year-old girl, but in fact he sent multiple sexually explicit messages and photos to an undercover agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s
Homeland Security Investigations,” Tuesday’s release states. “Mahal continued to communicate with the undercover agent even after the agent claimed she was 12 years old. In fact, Mahal sent sexually explicit photos of himself and repeatedly requested the ‘girl’ send sexually explicit photos of herself back to him.” Word of the arrest resulted in Mahal’s suspension from Surrey United Soccer Club. Mahal will have to register as a sex offender.
School district hopeful
Second chance for French program Sheila Reynolds Black Press
Melissa Smalley photo
Jennifer Brooks (second from right) visits the memorial to her second-oldest child, Hudson, with surviving children Shayla, Riley and Beau.
Slow pace of reports ‘out of our control,’ says IIO
Silence is killing me: Hudson’s mom Melissa Smalley Staff Reporter
Jennifer Brooks distinctly remembers the last time she saw her son alive. It was 4:45 on a sunny Friday afternoon, and she was driving north on 152 Street towards her home after making a quick stop at the bank. Hudson was walking in the opposite direction with a friend, just outside of Sandcastle Fitness.
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He saw his mom, flashed his trademark smile and waved. “He just walked away from me and never came back,” Brooks told Peace Arch News Wednesday. Less than 12 hours later, only 150 metres away from where he waved to his mom for the last time, 20-year-old Hudson was shot to death by police in front of the South Surrey RCMP detachment.
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Six months later, details of what happened in the early morning hours of July 18, remain scarce. According to police, officers were responding to reports of a man screaming outside the detachment when a struggle ensued. Hudson was shot, and an officer suffered a non-lifethreatening gunshot wound. Two days later, investigators confirmed that only police-issued i see page 4
A French immersion program that was cancelled at Cougar Creek Elementary before it began last fall is getting a second chance. The new Surrey location of the kindergarten-entry language program was scheduled to open at the Newton-area elementary school last September. However, despite a lengthy district-wide waiting list, only 12 children enrolled, forcing the program’s cancellation. More than 200 families were contacted and offered a spot, but because it was so close to the beginning of the school year, most turned it down, citing transportation concerns. Now, the district wants to give it another shot, hoping that informing parents and the community well ahead of the new school year will draw more students. “While 12 students were not enough to make the program viable last September, we are hopeful with more time for parents to consider travel arrangements and i see page 4
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