SASKATOON – A Court of King’s Bench judge on July 21 condemned Earl Warren, calling him a “predator” and a “coward” as he sentenced the 70-year-old to jail time for sexually abusing three girls under the age of 16 and later fleeing Canada to avoid trial.
“Rather than take his lumps, rather than accept his fate, he ran,” said Justice Richard Danyliuk. “Pure and simple, he ran away. His victims can't run away with what he's left them with. It is almost impossible for any right-thinking person to comprehend this sort of selfish, predatory, and yet cowardly behaviour all rolled into one."
Warren was first arrested in October 2020 after Saskatoon RCMP received a report in December 2019. He faced seven charges, including three counts of sexual assault and four counts of invitation to sexual touching of a minor, stemming from incidents reported to have occurred between 2010 and 2017 in Saskatchewan.
A Canada-wide warrant was issued for Warren in May 2023 after he failed to appear in court and fled to England. He fought extradition for more than two years, but the UK’s highest court denied his appeal in September 2025, allowing RCMP officers to bring him back to Canada.
Justice Danyliuk accepted a joint sentencing submission from Senior Crown Prosecutor Sheryl Fillo and defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle. Although Warren was sentenced to six years in prison, he will only serve two years less a day going forward after credit for time served while on remand. Pfefferle argued that because Warren was detained in England on a Canada-wide warrant, that remand credit applies.
That will be followed by three years of probation, and he will be subject to a 20-year SOIRA order, a 10-year firearms prohibition, and strict no contact conditions with the victims and their families.
Flight to England and long extradition fight
Court heard that Warren failed to appear for his scheduled trial in Saskatoon court. A warrant was issued and police later confirmed through passport records that he had left Canada and flown to England. A red notice – an international alert issued by Interpol – was issued, and on Nov. 10, 2023, authorities were notified that Warren was in hospital in Cambridge, England.
In an interview with Warren’s sister, Wanda Warren, she said she wasn’t surprised he fled. She had learned that he sold his acreage, disposed of his belongings and left the country. She said she helped piece together his movements by contacting people who had seen him shortly before he left, including a friend in Ottawa. She told that friend to contact police and report the date Warren had flown to England.
She said she alerted authorities in England. When she spoke with a nurse from a hospital in Cambridge seeking family information, she told her that her brother was wanted in Canada.
“I said, ‘He’s been charged with child sex crimes and he has fled Canada.’ After I talked to them, I phoned the RCMP and said, ‘I know exactly where he is now.’”
Sister describes decades of concern
Wanda attended the sentencing hearing in Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench on July 21, her first time ever in a courtroom.
She described watching her brother closely as he appeared by CCTV from jail.
“I was grinding my teeth through the whole hearing until the judge said that he was a coward and a liar – and then the tears flowed.”
She said she felt “absolute relief” hearing the judge’s words.
“I had said those very words myself. When the judge said that, I thought, ‘Finally, finally someone sees him for who he is – and somebody who can make him responsible for something.”
She said she had long been uneasy about her brother’s behaviour toward young girls.
“It didn’t surprise me when I heard it,” she said about his arrest in 2020. “His behaviour growing up with the other young girls and young ladies in the neighbourhood and things he said, it all just kind of made sense to me now.”
Her presence in court, she said, was deliberate.
“I needed him to know I was there. He’s afraid of me. All I have to do is look at him. I just have to be in his presence and look at him and that upsets him enough.”
She sat in clear view, directly behind the lawyers.
“I kept watching him looking at his screen in there. He had a completely different expression on his face,” she said of him seeing her in court. “It wasn’t anger. It was more of shock.”
Wands said coming to terms with what her brother did has been especially painful because of their shared upbringing.
"Well, it's difficult for anybody, right? But when it is somebody you know, then yes, it is very difficult. We share the same blood. It's kind of hard – same environment, same opportunities, or lack of opportunities. Out of three siblings, how can one veer off the path so badly?"
She said she was satisfied that her brother’s true nature is now public.
“The more people who know the truth about him, the happier I am.”
Warning: Content may be disturbing for some readers
Abuse spanned years
According to RCMP, the abuse occurred between 2010 and 2017.
Fillo detailed the extensive pattern of abuse during the sentencing hearing, including sexualized touching, coercive behaviour, and controlling actions during trips and visits. The victims were approximately four or five when the abuse began.
One victim recalled Warren explaining sexual acts to her and trying to get her and another girl to kiss. Another victim described Warren watching her shower and applying cream to her body afterward. Court heard that he used sexual devices on the victims.
One victim was subjected to touching beginning at age four that escalated until she was 13 or 14, progressing to increasingly invasive sexual acts. He would try to “normalize” the behaviour, telling the girl “this is perfectly normal, everybody does this,” and warning her not to tell anyone or she would be “in a lot of trouble.”
According to the Crown, he showed the victims pornography on his computer and forced them to engage in sexual acts.
Father of victim describes devastation
The father of one of the victims gave the court a victim impact statement describing the profound toll Warren’s actions have taken on his own family.
“My life will never be the same,” he said. “Because I entrusted [my child’s] safety to him, I now carry a heavy, ongoing guilt.”
He said the trauma destroyed his mental health, contributed to medical complications and significant weight gain, and cost him multiple jobs.
“The direct impact of his actions has easily cost me tens of thousands of dollars in lost wages,” he said, adding that divorce and financial collapse pushed his total financial impact past $100,000. “What burdens me the most is the permanent damage done to [my child.]”
He said the “trauma began the moment the horrific reality of his actions came to light.”
Rather than showing “a shred of remorse for the wreckage he left behind, he has attempted to insulate himself from the depravity of his actions,” said the father.
He said he fears Warren will retaliate after his release.
“He has a long history of seeking retribution against those he feels have wronged him. He possesses an extensive professional background in IT…leaving me in a constant state of fear for my family’s ongoing physical and digital security.”
Court heard that Warren previously worked for the Department of National Defence and for a law firm.
‘Clockwork Orange’ jail
Defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle said his client had fled Canada with the intention of visiting relatives’ graves and then committing suicide. Warren attempted suicide in the UK and was hospitalized before being held at Wandsworth Prison, a 19th century facility that Pfefferle described as “inhumane,” saying there were 10 deaths and over a thousand assaults in a single year.
He said Wandsworth received “some notoriety” because it was one of the jails featured in the film Clockwork Orange.
Pfefferle described the prison as unsafe, with two men housed in cells built for one, and minimal support services. Pfefferle said the conditions, Warren’s age and deteriorating health, made his time in custody in England particularly difficult. He said his client has expressed regret and wants to dedicate his remaining years to community service.
Wanda dismissed the defence’s claims that her brother had uncontrolled diabetes, contributing to his behaviour.
“That was laughable. That was laughable and disgusting to me – blaming diabetes, saying it’s just ravaging him.”
She said in contrast, her other brother, who had type 1 diabetes, was genuinely ravaged by the disease.
“A complication from diabetes ended up killing my brother,” she said. “And when I heard them blaming diabetes, I just thought it’s a good thing [Earl] isn’t in this courtroom because I just had so many urges to punch him in the face.”
No remorse
Wanda said her brother didn’t show remorse when the judge gave him an opportunity to speak.
“He showed no remorse. He didn’t reference the victims.”
When Warren spoke, he offered a brief apology.
“Your Honour, I simply want to apologize to everyone that my behaviour has affected,” he said.
Warren lacks insight: Justice Danyliuk
“I accept the comments about the jail facility,” said Justice Danyliuk. “But I will be frank that I do not find that tremendously moving, given his lack of any indication – other than the bare bones of an apology – about what he did to these three girls, to me that illustrates a lack of insight into what he did.
“I hope you can at least set aside your cowardice to face the truth of what you have done,” Justice Danyliuk said to Warren.
Judge reassures victims
The judge offered words of reassurance to the victims.
“Absolutely none of what happened to any of them was their fault – none of it,” he said. “I hope they can come to appreciate that they were just children at the time, that adults are trusted with children, and that fundamental trust was shattered entirely.
“This is as repugnant a set of crimes as I have come across in 32 years of engagement with the law,” said Justice Danyliuk.
ljoy@sasktoday.ca
