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Parole board sets release rules for convicted Calgary child killer from B.C. prison

formerly known as Michael Douglas Sheets, has been serving a 14-and-a-half year sentence which will end in December
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Michael Douglas Sheets, convicted of manslaughter, arson and other charges, has been returned to Mission Institution, officials say. (Submitted photo)

A Calgary man convicted of killing two children in a firebombing has been told he must attend a brain injury centre and take counselling for anger management after he’s released from prison this summer.

The two conditions are among several laid out by the Parole Board of Canada for John James Joseph Jerom Hala when he’s released from a Mission, B.C. prison.

READ MORE: Convicted killer recaptured after escaping B.C. prison

Hala, formerly known as Michael Douglas Sheets, has been serving a 14-and-a-half year sentence which will end in December, but his statutory pre-release will come July 1.

After he is freed, the 49-year-old man must also undergo counselling for substance abuse, stay away from the victims’ family, not consume alcohol or street drugs and not associate with anyone involved in crime.

Hala was found guilty of manslaughter, arson and disregard of human life in 2004 for throwing a Molotov cocktail into a home in southeast Calgary.

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Ali Al-Mayahi, who was five, and his four-year-old sister, Saja Al-Mayahi, were killed, while their mother escaped the burning building by jumping from the second storey.

Hala, who escaped from custody twice during his sentence, will live at an undisclosed facility during his five months of pre-release.

The parole board says without the strict rules, Hala presents “an undue risk to society.”

“These conditions are reasonable and necessary in order to protect society and to facilitate your successful reintegration into society,” the board said in its six-page decision released May 30 of this year. (CTV Calgary)

The Canadian Press

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