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David Shearing (a.k.a David Ennis) is shown in a 1983 file photo. Mr. Shearing pleaded guilty and received the maximum sentence of life without chance at parole for 25 years. He's now eligible to apply for parole every two years.The Canadian Press

A man convicted of murdering an entire family from British Columbia has been denied parole.

The National Parole Board has determined after a hearing at Bowden prison, north of Calgary, that David Shearing is not ready for release.

Mr. Shearing, who now goes by his mother's maiden name of Ennis, shot and killed George and Edith Bentley, their daughter Jackie and her husband, Bob Johnson, while the family was on a camping trip in interior B.C. in 1982.

He kept the Johnsons' daughters Janet, 13, and Karen, 11, alive for almost a week and sexually assaulted them before taking them into the woods, one at a time, and killing them, too.

All six bodies were stuffed in the Johnsons' car, which was rolled down a hill and torched.

Mr. Shearing pleaded guilty and received the maximum sentence of life without chance at parole for 25 years.

He had already been denied parole once before.

He is eligible to apply every two years.

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