'The man is not fixable': Alleged U.S. victim of Shrubsall speaks out

Weeks after an unknown person tried to sexually assault her in 1986, 14-year-old C.B. was at a youth centre in Niagara Falls, N.Y., when she spotted her alleged attacker: William Shrubsall.

C.B.'s boyfriend and a friend confronted Shrubsall about the alleged incident, but he denied it. He then ran from the youth centre, but C.B. and a group of youths gave chase. When Shrubsall arrived at his home, he slipped underneath the family car to evade the group, but they pulled him out and pummelled him.

"So, I took care of it my own way," said C.B. "He got beat up for probably six months."

Now 47, the woman can't be identified due to a publication ban from when she testified in the 2001 dangerous offender proceedings in Nova Scotia against Shrubsall. She's outraged by the decision to grant him parole and she's still consumed by guilt about not going forward with criminal proceedings against Shrubsall.

"I want to say sorry to the girls," said C.B.

The Jan. 27, 1986, attack is believed to be the first one Shrubsall committed, and he would have been 14 at the time. C.B. said she was walking home from a youth centre when she was pushed into a snowbank. Shrubsall pinned her down, said he had a knife and demanded oral sex.

When Shrubsall used one of his hands to attempt to undo her pants, it freed up one of her hands, C.B. said. She grabbed Shrubsall violently by the nose and screamed as loudly as she could. He then fled.

As the incident happened outside at night, C.B. said she didn't get a good look at Shrubsall, but she noticed her attacker was wearing a red windbreaker with white lettering. He also had a distinct voice. Those features allowed her to later identify him as the person who attacked her.

C.B. said without any physical evidence, she believed Shrubsall's word would be taken over hers in any court proceedings, but she did file a police report, which CBC News has viewed.

"He was a goody goody," she said. "He was an honour student ... I was a basic student. I've gotten into a little trouble, you know. I had detention, stuff like that. I smoked, you know, typical teenager dumbness."

C.B. said Shrubsall never tried to do anything to her after the beating and would give her a wide berth when they crossed paths. When they were in the same space, C.B. said she would call him a rapist.

Years later, Shrubsall would be found guilty of beating his mother to death with a baseball bat on the night before his high school graduation in 1988 where he was to be the valedictorian.

Racked with guilt

"The guilt on me felt so bad because if I would've went forward in '86, maybe there would have been a black mark on Shrubsall where he wouldn't have got, I would say, off for murdering his mother," said C.B.

Shrubsall was tried as an adult and found guilty of manslaughter, but on appeal, youthful offender status was granted.

The change meant instead of facing a maximum 15-year prison sentence, he would not have to serve more than four years. He ended up behind bars for only 16 months.

In 1995, Shrubsall was arrested for sexually assaulting a teenage girl at a party.

While on trial in May 1996, he fled from Niagara Falls and showed up in Halifax two days later. He was convicted in absentia and given a sentence of up to seven years in prison.

He lived in Halifax under a number of aliases and committed a string of violent attacks and sexual assaults before being apprehended in June 1998.

Shrubsall, now 47, was granted parole last November and remained in a Canadian prison until Monday, which is when he was deported to the U.S. to begin serving his 1995 sexual assault conviction sentence. He will also serve time for absconding during the trial.

'They let all the victims down'

C.B. is outraged by the decision to parole Shrubsall.

"I want the Canadian parole board to know that they let all the victims down of him, deeply let us down," she said. "The man is not fixable. He's dangerous."

The parole board's November 2018 decision says Shrubsall poses "a high risk to re-offend sexually and that there is no institutional programming that would reduce your risk to a point where it would be manageable in the community."

C.B. said she's now going to fight to keep Shrubsall, who now goes by the name of Ethan Simon Templar MacLeod, behind bars.

"I'm going to stomp my feet very loudly," she said. "I'm going to stomp because he does not need to be out again and he needs to serve a lot more [time]."

Shrubsall could be eligible for parole in fewer than five years.