CALGARY - A convicted U.S. sex offender finally brought to Canada to face trial in a 30-year-old child-rape case will not go to court for now.

And Calgary police, who have said they are investigating the same man, Wilbur James Ventling, as a possible suspect in several unsolved child sex attacks in the 1970s, confirmed any DNA evidence which might have been collected no longer exists.

Major Crimes Insp. Guy Slater confirmed a police officer "mistakenly ordered it destroyed" in 1985.

But he stressed, "systems and processes have changed significantly and that would not occur now."

Ventling, 63, was charged in the 1979 rape of a nine-year-old Vernon, B.C., girl.

The case was to go to trial this week, but Ventling won a last-minute Charter argument which saw Supreme Court Justice Lance Bernard stay all charges -- of rape and causing bodily harm with intent to wound -- given the delay of Ventling's extradition.

Deportation proceedings are apparently underway, but Canada Border Services officials would not comment when contacted yesterday and Friday.

Slater said detectives have not given up on solving the cases, working with what evidence exists from crime scene photos to witness and victims statements.

"Obviously, from an investigative standpoint, the absence of DNA places us at considerable disadvantage," Slater said.

Ventling was arrested in 2007 at his Nevada home and extradited to Canada and charged in the B.C. case.

He escaped from a Calgary hospital in 1979 after being picked up as a suspect in 10 offences against girls between ages 5 and 13 in the Calgary area -- four months after the B.C. rape.

Ventling, who is on a U.S. sex-offender registry, has a criminal record which includes crimes against children dating back to 1971 in California and the 1979 attempted sex assault of a young girl in Las Vegas.

NADIA.MOHARIB@SUNMEDIA.CA