Accused child abductor Randall Hopley is led out of the Cranbrook, B.C. courthouse on Wednesday Sept. 14, 2011. A B.C judge is expected to rule whether confessed child abductor Randall Hopley will undergo a 60-day psychiatric evaluation to help determine if he meets the criteria to be designated a dangerous offender.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Bill Graveland

CRANBROOK, B.C. - A B.C. judge is expected to rule today whether confessed child abductor Randall Hopley will undergo a 60-day psychiatric evaluation to help determine if he meets the criteria to be designated a dangerous offender.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Heather Holmes has had the past three weeks to consider the request from Crown prosecutor Lynal Doerksen who wants Hopley declared a dangerous or long-term offender.

Hopley, who is now 47, has pleaded guilty to breaking into three-year-old Kienan Hebert's home in Sparwood, B.C., in the middle of the night last September before taking the boy to a cabin at a nearby bible camp.

Kienan was returned four days later and Hopley was later arrested at the camp.

The application to have Hopley declared a long-term or dangerous offender would allow the court to hand him an indeterminate sentence.

Hopley has insisted he never harmed or sexually assaulted the boy, and the Crown has presented no evidence that he did.

However, the Crown also points to Hopley's criminal history, including a sexual assault on a five-year-old boy in 1985 and an attempted abduction in 2007, to suggest he is a dangerous man who must be kept from the public.

Doerksen said although there's no evidence to suggest Kienan suffered severe psychological damage he presented a report from a child psychology expert that said many children have lasting effects from abductions.

"This child may not have appreciated the danger," Doerksen said.

But Hopley's lawyer says a dangerous offender designation is too extreme.

"We don't have any violence, any maltreatment or any threats of violence,'' William Thorne said during Hopley's sentencing hearing last month.

"We have a case of a simple man who did a stupid thing but who treated the boy well."

Thorne said Hopley has the manner and maturity of a "child".

"Is it appropriate to put someone of Mr. Hopley's level of functioning to the dangerous offender or long-term offender regime for sentencing? This is a real stretch for the prosecution to make," he said.

"The dangerous offender, long-term offender sentencing regime is for the most serious offences and the most serious offenders.''

If the judge decides against the psychiatric assessment it isn't clear when an actual sentence for Hopley will be handed down.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2012