A former Prince George man is fighting deportation back to Canada where he is accused of raping a disabled child in this city four decades ago.
Raymond Douglas Charles MacLeod, 72, was arrested in the United States nearly a year ago after a deputy in the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department identified him as a fugitive.
MacLeod remains in the U.S. where his case is going through the legal process.
In March, an immigration judge ordered MacLeod removed to Canada and his subsequent appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals was dismissed, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lori Haley said Tuesday.
Last week, MacLeod filed a petition for review with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and a temporary stay of removal is in place. MacLeod remains in custody pending a decision on his latest legal filing, Haley said.
According to reports from Los Angeles media at the time of his apprehension, the RCMP arrested MacLeod in 1974 and he was charged with raping a five year old with cerebral palsy. While on bail during the trial, he twice tried to flee to the U.S. but was stopped.
MacLeod was eventually tried and acquitted but in 1980 a new trial was ordered after an appeals court concluded the trial judge made an error. But by that time, MacLeod had fled and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Officials said MacLeod was using a dead person's social security number. He was arrested on Oct. 31, 2013 at his home in a San Dimas trailer park east of Los Angeles.
MacLeod is a convicted felon due to drunk driving and a hit and run case from the 1980s, and has been arrested several times in the U.S. over the three decades he's lived there, according to officials, but was never linked to the Canadian case.
But according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, when Deputy Dan Whitten ran MacLeod's information in January 2013, he noticed a "very vague" entry listed in connection with his name in a national crime database. He contacted Canadian authorities and a 10-month investigation led to MacLeod's arrest with investigators careful not to tip him off before his apprehension.
According to a September 1974 story in the Prince George Citizen, police alleged MacLeod, then 32, attacked the girl in an Upland Street apartment. He was originally identified as Douglas Charles MacLeod but then RCMP said a further check of records showed his name as Raymond Douglas Charles McLeod and he lived on McIntyre Crescent.
B.C. criminal justice branch spokesman Neil Mackenzie said Tuesday that it's expected MacLeod will appear in court in Prince George to face the outstanding charges upon return to Canada.
MacLeod's alleged victim is now married with a family and expressed relief MacLeod is in custody, Whitten told the Tribune.
