FILE PHOTO - Oliver resident Wayne Belleville in front of Penticton courthouse in 2016. Belleville notified police after receiving a letter from assailant Ron Teneycke, who is in prison, last December.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

PENTICTON - When Ronald Teneycke one of the South Okanagan's most notorius prolific offenders, was declared a dangerous offender after months of court proceedings last March,Teneycke's last victim, Wayne Belleville publicly admitted his great relief at the prospect of never having to deal with the man again.

In 2015, Teneycke shot him in the back with a .22 rifle, stole his truck and left him for dead after Belleville stopped to give him a ride.

The Oliver resident's relief was short lived, however, after he received a letter from Teneycke, who is incarcerated in the Kent federal facility in Agassiz, in the weeks before Christmas last December.

Ronald Teneycke was designated a dangerous offender and given an indefinite sentence in Penticton court on March 15, 2018.

Teneycke faced sentencing on two counts of robbery, discharge of a firearm with intent to wound, and flight from a police officer, stemming from a crime spree that took place in the Oliver area between July 16 and July 23, 2015.

Belleville was Teneycke’s last victim. He was shot by Teneycke after picking him up on a remote logging road east of Oliver on July 22, 2015. Belleville suffered a collapsed lung and ruptured spleen.

Belleville said he read the letter just prior to handing it over to police after initially ignoring it, but decided he should read it in case of an implied or direct threat.

“After reading it, I was really angry and emotional,” Belleville said in a telephone interview today, Jan. 15. He said the letter rambled “all over the place,” at one point telling Belleville that Teneycke would never forgive himself for shooting him, but later saying he had no empathy for Belleville.

“His last words were to invite me visit him in prison to get ‘closure,’ then he says, ‘if you try to do anything I’ll beat the crap out of you,” Belleville says.

“He signed off by saying, ‘Merry Christmas, your unknown, Ron,” he adds.

“Regardless of what was inside the letter, it’s what implied that is disturbing to me, in that a) I’m thinking about you, and b) I know where you live,” Belleville says.

“He’s had lifetime prohibitions on firearms before he shot me, so prohibitions aren’t going to stop him. Unless you’re physically keeping him in a locked room and watching everything he’s doing, he’ll do whatever he wants,” Belleville says.

Belleville contacted the prison, the RCMP and Crown Prosecutor Kurt Froehlich after receiving the letter. He says the prison was initially apologetic and said it wouldn’t happen again. He said Froehlich was also concerned about the letter being delivered, as Teneycke had a no contact order against Belleville.

“It seems a little incredulous. There aren’t that many dangerous offenders in Canadian prisons,” Belleville says, adding he believes the justice system has the tools but those tools aren’t used.

“The official explanation was no one was watching Teneycke’s mail,” he says.

Teneycke is scheduled to be back in Penticton court by video on Jan. 17 to face charges stemming from this incident.

Although Belleville feels any new charges will have little effect on Teneycke’s present sentence, the charges should be an issue when and if he ever comes up for parole.

Belleville says it’s been tough moving past the July 22, 2015 incident with Teneycke.

“I don’t think a day has gone by when I don’t think about it one way or another. I’m trying, but this doesn’t help,” he says with emotion, adding he still travels local logging roads and continues to pick up hitchhikers.

“It was bad luck, meeting up with him that day. There’s nil possibility of that happening again, and I’m not going to let him win,” Belleville says.

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