Man pleads guilty in Calgary child abduction

A sex offender who abducted a 10-year-old girl from a northeast Calgary mall earlier this year pleaded guilty Friday to kidnapping and impersonating a police officer.

John Francis Dionne, 43,snatched the childfrom Deerfoot Mall in the early evening ofFeb. 24.

Minutes later his vehicle was pulled over by an RCMP officer, who issued Dionne a speeding ticket while the frightened girl who had not been reported missing yet sat quietly in the front seat.

A few minutes later the girl was dropped off in a restaurant parking lot in Airdrie, where she called for help.

Dionne was arrested the next day at his home in Linden, Alta., about 75 kilometres northeast of Calgary.

His defence lawyer Rebecca Snukal said on Friday thather client is very remorseful. She alsotold courtthat Dionne washigh on crack cocaine at the time of the incident.

Dionne will be back in court in June for an assessment to determine if a hearing is necessary to declare him a dangerous or long-term offender.

"He's going to participate in this assessment so that we can get some insight into this behaviour," Snukal said.

"We're trying to not put the family through anything more than they have to and we've dealt with that very quickly for that reason," she added.

The incident raised questions about why the officer who stopped Dionne's vehicle was not made aware of the man's long criminal past.

In October 2010, the RCMP issued a public warning about Dionne, his history of violence and sexual offences against girls as young as 10 and his status as HIV-positive. He was at a high risk to reoffend, police said at the time.

Aninternal reviewof the incident by officials with RCMP K Division in Edmonton concluded that a miscommunication occurred between the officer and an Operational Communication Centre (OCC) operator during the traffic stop.