Cook in custody

Police arrested Lloyd William Cook on Monday morning, 11 days after he failed to show up in court to hear the verdict in a trial into the events surrounding the death of his stepson in 2000.

"He's in custody, there's no public threat," Prince George RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass said Monday afternoon, noting the arrest was made at a residence in Osoyoos.

"We received information and we followed up on that information," Douglass added.

On Friday, Cook was found guilty in absentia of two unlawful confinement and interference with a dead body in the death of 13-year-old Adam Scott Williams-Dudoward but was found not guilty of the more serious offences of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Glen Parrett had been scheduled to issue his verdict on Jan. 31, but Cook never showed up at the Prince George courthouse. He did contact his lawyer that day to say his car had broken down in Williams Lake. A warrant was subsequently issued for Cook's arrest and Parrett officially declared Cook was an absconder on Feb. 5.

It's not yet known when Cook will be transported to Prince George but Douglass expects it will be a priority. He said more details will likely be forthcoming on Tuesday.

Cook has yet to be sentenced, but Crown prosecutor Lara Vizsolyi has argued he should receive two to three years on each count, to be served consecutively. Cook's defence lawyer Stephen Taylor is seeking concurrent sentences of 18 months.

In his judgment, Parrett found that Adam died on or around Jan. 7, 2000 after he had been tied up and left in a bedroom in a mobile home Glenview Drive.

At the time Adam had been living with his mother, Judy Elaina Williams, a younger brother and Cook. Williams and Cook said they tied Adam because they believed he was molesting his younger brother.

Parrett determined that when Adam was found in distress, it was Cook who tried to revive him with CPR while Williams looked on. Neither adult called 911, instead they placed the child's body in the back of a truck and left it there for up to a month before burying Adam in a wooded area along the Nechako River.

Parrett found Cook not guilty on the manslaughter charge after determining that there was "no medical, mechanical or physical explanation of the death, let alone one linking the accused to that result."

Similarly on the count of criminal negligence causing death, the judge said the charge had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt.

However, Parrett did find that by restraining Adam on a bed for two or three days, Cook was guilty of unlawful confinement. Taylor didn't offer any defence for the charge of interference with a dead body.

Williams, who testified during Cook's trial, is currently serving two years of house arrest for interference with a dead body.