The man who murdered a Guelph woman and her daughter 28 years ago has been granted day parole.
Ed Dakin, 71, has been granted day parole in advance of his full release from jail following a Parole Board Of Canada hearing last month.
Family members of the victims, Jackie Kaulback, 39, and her daughter Julie, 16, attended the hearing and voiced their opposition to Dakin being granted any parole.
Dakin, a former successful realtor in Guelph and head of the Guelph and District Real Estate Board, has been in jail since his arrest but had previously been granted unescorted temporary absences from Beaver Creek minimum security institution near Bracebridge, where he had been serving his sentence for the past several years.
The Parole Board ruling says Dakin plans on spending his days at Edmison House, a rehab and counselling facility in Peterborough, volunteering with the John Howard Society and completing wood projects.
The board noted Dakin’s “advanced age and poor health” in awarding him day parole.
He will not be allowed to consume alcohol or enter Wellington County or Woolwich Township and not have any contact with the family of the victims.
On Jan. 25, 1989, a drunk Dakin went to the Victoria Road home of Jackie Kaulback, who had just ended their relationship, taking with him a mason jar filled with gasoline.
Dakin, who was married, went into her bedroom where she and her daughter lay sleeping on the bed, poured the gasoline on them and set them on fire.
He then left the house, phoning his wife, then later phoning 911 from the side of Highway 401 near Milton because he had burned his hands.
The Kaulbacks died days later in a Hamilton hospital after suffering third degree burns to 90 per cent of their bodies.
Dakin has been refused day parole in the past, largely because the Parole Board felt he continued to refuse to accept full responsibility for the murders.
“Despite years of programming, counselling and a variety of interventions, you, continue to struggle with the fact that you committed two First Degree Murders,” says the Parole Board’s most recent decision.
The board did say that Dakin “came closer to being honest about your actions and intentions” of late, admitting that he intended to threaten Jackie Kaulbeck that night.
The report noted that the victims’ family is “adamantly opposed to your release.”