A Nova Scotia man who served 35 years for the violent slaying of a 12-year-old Ontario girl he had raped had his day parole extended last month and continues to live in the Halifax area, according to the Parole Board of Canada.
In its decision to extend 73-year-old Douglas Worth’s release to an undisclosed community-based residential facility (CBRF) for another six months, a two-person board noted that while he remains an “above-average risk” for committing sexual violence, his age, physical limitations and mobility issues mitigate concerns about his threat level.
“These characteristics suggest that your likelihood of engaging in violent or sexual recidivism may be lower than previously indicated,” the board wrote in a December decision obtained by National Post. “While this does not eliminate risk, it is an important consideration in assessing your overall profile.”
Worth was convicted of the second-degree murder of Trina Campbell in Brantford, Ont., in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 23 years.
He was first released in July 2025, at which time Halifax Regional Police warned that the repeat “high-risk offender” would be residing in the Dartmouth area.
High-Risk Offender Notification: Douglas Worth
Halifax Regional Police is advising citizens, particularly those in Dartmouth, that a high-risk offender is residing in the community.
Douglas Worth, 73, is a federal offender who has been serving a life sentence for second-degree… pic.twitter.com/8B2VNjDRJf— Halifax_Police (@HfxRegPolice) July 30, 2025
Prior to that, the board noted Worth had participated in “numerous Escorted Temporary Absences (ETAs)” and three unescorted absences. The last of those, a 60-day furlough, was cut short by four days due to his “deteriorating health.”
Under the
Corrections and Conditional Release Act
, a temporary absence from a facility is granted when the board deems the inmate presents “limited risk” to reoffend while released. They can be provided for reasons including medical, community service, family contact, rehabilitation or compassionate leave.
According to the board’s December determination, his day parole has so far been “positive” and without any concerns, even after the announcement of his release drew “intense media attention and public scrutiny.”
“You managed these circumstances with composure and emotional stability,” the board wrote. “This ability to remain calm and seek guidance during a highly stressful period reflects resilience and a willingness to work collaboratively with your Case Management Team (CMT).”
A lengthy list of special conditions imposed during his first day parole — which included drug and alcohol abstinence, sticking to his correctional and psychiatric treatment plans and avoiding victims and children — carries over to this extension.
“
,” a written authorization that would temporarily relieve him from returning to the CBRF for up to three nights, were denied for the second time, meaning he must return nightly.
The board emphasized that his continued day parole at the CBRF “will contribute to the protection of society by facilitating (Worth’s) reintegration into society as a law-abiding citizen.”
Also given weight by the board was his strong engagement with his correctional plan and the efforts he made to better himself while incarcerated. It highlighted more than a dozen programs and interventions he completed to address his substance abuse and violent sexual proclivities.
“Your ability to apply the skills learned through programming is reflected in your successful period of day parole, which serves as evidence of measurable progress,” it wrote.
The board described his 25 years of sobriety as “a remarkable achievement” for someone who began using drugs and alcohol during his teenage years.
According to his file, Worth, they noted, was raised in a “dysfunctional home environment” where he was the victim of emotional and physical abuse. He was also physically and sexually assaulted by “several different people” in the Pictou County community where he grew up.
“Your tumultuous upbringing led to lasting feelings of inadequacy, unworthiness, shame, anger, and powerlessness, and resulted in maldevelopment in your emotional and social functioning,” they wrote.
Worth’s criminal history of break-ins and motor vehicle theft dates back to his youth in 1968. In 1978, he was convicted of raping an Indigenous girl in Ontario and sentenced to eight years before being released in June of 1987, roughly seven months before he killed Campbell.
The board’s decision offers little detail of the crime, but it was widely reported on at the time and the case has also been the focus of a documentary titled
Douglas Worth: The Pictou Sadist
. It is also explored in
a 2005 episode of the television series Crime Stories
.
The Metis girl with a troubled past of her own was living in a Brampton group home when she disappeared after getting off her school bus on Dec. 13, 1987. After a two-plus-month missing-person investigation yielded no credible leads, and despite no evidence of foul play, homicide detectives took over the case in early 1988.
Unbeknownst to authorities at the time, however, was that a 35-year-old Worth was living in a downtown boarding house close to where Campbell was last seen by her school bus driver.
That March, he had his girlfriend, Mary Kelly, rent a vehicle and accompany him so he could move evidence related to an undisclosed crime.
“He left the car with a hockey bag and went into this ravine area. He then was seen by Mary to come from there carrying this hockey bag that was now laden with something,” assistant Crown prosecutor Al O’Marra said on the Crime Stories.
He then drove north of the city, went into the woods with the bag and came back with it empty.
The breakthrough in the case came not from forensic leads but from informants close to Worth. First, his girlfriend’s son, Shawn Kelly, told police and guidance counsellors that Worth had asked him to clean a stain in the rental car. When located and tested by police, it revealed decomposed human blood of a rare type common among Indigenous persons.
Next, Worth’s sister and brother-in-law told police he’d admitted to killing someone and was worried someone would find the body.
“They advised us that Doug had approached them requesting assistance to get back to Brampton so that he could retrieve the head of the victim,” Favreau said on Crime Stories. “Doug told them that if you can get the head of the victim, it would prevent anyone from being able to identify the victim.”
A plan was devised in which authorities surreptitiously provided the vehicle and money to travel in hopes that he would lead them to the remains. While under surveillance days later, Worth was seen exiting a wooded area with a gym bag. When stopped, police found the partially decomposed head of Trina Campbell in the bag. The rest of her body was later found in a field north of Toronto.
“He broke her leg, fractured her skull, her body was butchered, he snapped off her forearms and dumped her body,” O’Marra told the court during Worth’s 1990 trial, according to the Windsor Star.
Worth pleaded guilty to first-degree murder at trial, where his defence lawyer argued insanity, suggesting his client was hallucinating and believed Campbell was a female correctional officer from his previous prison stint.
Jurors spent less than an hour deliberating before delivering Justice Coulter Osborne with a guilty verdict.
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