Photo: Castanet

File photo of Ronald Teneycke leaving the Penticton Courthouse in May 2017

Ronald Teneycke, one of the Okanagan’s most notorious violent criminals, will remain behind bars for the foreseeable future.

Teneycke, 61, is serving an indefinite federal prison sentence as a dangerous offender in the wake of a 35-year criminal career marked with horrifying violence and sexual offences.

While he admits he should not be released from prison, the Parole Board of Canada has a legal requirement to review his release eligibility every two years.

In what is perhaps one of the more open-and-shut cases for the board recently, Teneycke was denied both full and day parole on Nov. 21.

“You have stated that if you were released you would reoffend in a violent way within a short period,” said the parole documents released to Castanet.

Teneycke received Canada’s harshest criminal punishment in 2018—a dangerous offender designation and indefinite sentence—after his last criminal rampage in 2015.

During that spree, he robbed an Oliver, B.C. gas station and shot a man that picked him up hitchhiking. The crimes happened while he was out of jail on an intermittent sentence.

He would later send the shooting victim a letter, from prison, which in the victim’s words “effectively blamed me — it was my fault that I got shot.”

Other past convictions included sexual assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and uttering threats, in connection to the rape of an Okanagan teenager in 1993.

The Parole Board documents detail the life of a man who has been hooked on drugs since his early teens and has continued to use while incarcerated. Teneycke was sexually abused as a child, and at the age of four watched his step-father shoot and kill himself.

Since arriving in federal prison in 2018, he has picked up additional institutional charges related to substance use, overdose, aggression and assaults towards staff.

“In May of 2024 you expressed frustration to your parole officer about being required to participate in the high intensity sex offender program, as you don’t feel you require it, but also described the intrusive thoughts you experience when a pregnant woman walks into the room and wanting to stab her in the stomach, but that you don’t do it,” the parole documents state.

At his parole hearing, Teneycke said he agreed with “98%” of the parole officers submissions, with the exception being two relatively minor institutional citations.

He told the parole board that his health is declining. When he was sentenced in 2018 the courts heard Teneycke had lymphoma, arthritis, Hepatitis C, Type 2 diabetes, gout and hypertension. He now requires blood work every two weeks to monitor his health.

“You stated that you are making progress as you are starting to realize all the people you hurt,” said the parole documents. “You stated in the past you did not show any remorse or empathy and were only concerned about yourself.”

“You told the board that you do not believe you deserve a release from prison and you should not be released. You believe you have changed by the way you treat people.”

Teneycke was transferred from maximum security to medium security designation in 2022.