OTTAWA - Child-killer James Sidney Allen earned a conditional discharge from a mental health centre in a split Ontario Review Board decision.

On Jan. 8, 1976, at age 14, Allen was found not criminally responsible for the 1975 murder of an eight-year-old boy in Orleans.

He'd been detained at the Brockville Mental Health Centre.

The review board's decision was split at 3-2.

In the written reasons for the decision, the two dissenting board members argue in favour of maintaining the Brockville Mental Health Centre (BMHC) patient's detention order "to contain the uncontested significant risk that he poses to public safety and particularly to children."

In November, the ORB went against the recommendation of the Crown attorney when it decided to grant a conditional discharge to Allen, a decision granting the 51-year-old patient more latitude in the community.

He now lives in an apartment in Brockville.

The written decision notes that, on June 13, 1975 Allen lured eight-year-old Ricky Johnston to a swampy area in Orleans, in east-end Ottawa, made him strip down to his socks and strangled him.

The document adds "the possibility of a sexual assault existed."

The victim's sister, Sandra Hall, said the family received a copy of the written reasons for the Dec. 3 ORB decision on Thursday.

On Friday she reserved comment until she had read them more thoroughly.

Allen, reached at his Pine Street residence, refused to talk to a reporter Friday, referring all questions to his BMHC treatment team.