For the second time in two
months, the killer of a Brockville man has postponed a parole hearing
set to review a five-year sentence he received for the crime just 20
months ago.
Henry Danninger, also of
Brockville, was convicted of fatally stabbing Andy Moffitt at an Ottawa
bar just before Christmas of 1998.
Moffitt's mother, Paulette,
said she was informed by mail Thursday that the hearing was postponed
again, further prolonging the family's anxiety over the possibility of
Andy's killer being released less than two years into a sentence they
already find impossible to accept.
"The letter says: Please note this offender has postponed the hearing from Jan. 14 to Feb. 22," she said.
The first postponement made at Danninger's request was for a Dec. 8 hearing set back to Jan. 14.
Moffitt questions why her son's
killer is allowed to dictate the schedule while the family has to
change arrangements a second time to attend the hearing.
"It gives us another month of
knowing for sure he's going to be in jail, but it also adds to our
stress and anxiety. It's just something that should never happen," she
said.
"It's unbelievable that an offender has the right to postpone when he feels like it."
Moffitt said the family's
victim statements were sent to the parole board in November and friends
who want to attend the hearing will have to adjust their schedules
again.
"I hope all those who were planning on coming can reschedule. We really need their support," she said.
Moffitt, a University of Ottawa
engineering student, was stabbed to death by Danninger as Moffitt was
trying to break up a fight.
Moffitt was posthumously awarded the Governor-General's Medal of Bravery.
Published in Section A, page
1 in the Friday, December 31, 2004 edition of the Brockville Recorder & Times. Posted 4:38:10 PM Friday, December 31, 2004.
