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Paroled Toronto sex offender faces new charges of drugging, sexually assaulting woman
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WARNING: This story deals with sexual assault.
A 73-year-old former Toronto pharmacist on parole was arrested last week and charged with sexually assaulting a woman.
Before being released on parole, Allen Siu Ming Chow was serving time for drugging and recording himself sexually assaulting 18 young prostitutes more than 15 years ago.
What’s more, Peel Regional Police say investigators in their special victims unit believe there are additional alleged victims of Chow.
Chow had only been paroled from federal prison in March 2025, after serving approximately nine years and four months of a 14-year sentence for 36 counts of administering a stupefying drug and sexually assaulting 18 women between 2009 and 2012.
“Between December 2025 and April 2026, it is alleged that the accused met an adult female victim online and subsequently met with her in person on multiple occasions. During these encounters, the accused allegedly rendered the victim unconscious and unresponsive before sexually assaulting her,” police wrote in a Saturday press release, adding that he used his phone to record the sex acts “without the victim’s knowledge or consent.”
The Oakville man is charged with overcoming resistance by administering or attempting to administer a drug, sexual assault causing bodily harm and voyeurism.
Previously, Chow was the owner, manager and licensed dispensing pharmacist at Bridletowne Pharmacy in Toronto, according to a sanctioning decision by the Ontario College of Pharmacists. Police were on the way to arrest Chow in relation to a sexual assault allegation on Dec. 4, 2012, when they saw him stagger out of his pharmacy and get in his vehicle while severely impaired.
While he was in custody, a search of his residence uncovered several camera memory cards that contained 70 hours of footage in 95 separate videos of himself engaged “in all manner of sexual activity” with female sex workers who’d been rendered unconscious with drinks or food laced with Lorazepam, according to a sentencing decision by Ontario Superior Court Justice Gregory Mulligan.
“Chow subjected his victims to degrading and dehumanizing activity,” which included spitting on them and having unprotected sex, according to the agreed statement of facts quoted by the judge.
“He treated the women as objects, manipulating their bodies as he pleased.”
The judge explained that when Chow completed his “disgusting sexual conduct, he showed no concern for his victims’ recovery or ability to get home safely,” often exiting the hotel room where the assaults occurred, leaving his victims “to regain consciousness on their own and make their way home in spite of the condition he had subjected them to.”
Some of the women were victimized more than a dozen times each.
During a forensic psychiatric evaluation requested by the defence, Chow explained that he “felt justified in making them unconscious for sexual gratification” because they were prostitutes providing a paid service.
Chow was released on conditions a week after his arrest, but was arrested again in March 2013 after police went through a “painstaking and thorough investigation” to identify and interview 18 of the victims — none of whom were aware “that they were subject to this degrading and humiliating activity while being videotaped.”
Upon learning what happened to her, one woman “became physically ill in the waste basket of the interview room,” the decision reads.
Many of the victims provided victim impact statements to the court, some of whom chose to read them aloud in front of a then 62-year-old Chow at his November 2015 sentencing.
“I have had numerous hospitalizations for suicide attempts and post-traumatic disorder from what happened to me,” one victim stated. “He, of all people, a medical professional, purposely and knowingly preyed on me numerous times.”
“When I think of you, my chest gets tight, I feel sick to my stomach,” another offered. “I have had some major anxiety attacks when thinking about what you have done to not only me, but many other women and young ladies.”
Another said she felt sick watching her own video statement in court.
“When I got home that was all I could think about, I cried constantly and didn’t even want to hold my daughter because I didn’t think I was good enough,” she said.
Chow also addressed the court during the sentencing hearings, apologizing to his victims and calling his actions “callous, heinous, selfish and degrading.”
According to the decision, Chow immigrated from Hong Kong on a student visa to attend York University, where he met his wife of over 30 years, with whom he shares an adult daughter. He’d been running his pharmacy for 17 years when he was first arrested, at which time he was about 59 years old.
Chow’s psychiatric evaluation determined that he started drinking significantly more three years earlier following a prostate cancer diagnosis, including while at work. He “presented with a major depression without psychotic features,” alcoholism and paraphilia, specifically “sexual sadism,” one the psychiatrist said will now be a “lifelong disorder.”
“He stated that if a person in these circumstances were to re-offend, it would more likely be the same type of offence, and that once these offences start, they can escalate over time,” Mulligan wrote.
Recommended treatment for such a disorder, the psychiatrist said, is counselling and drugs that will lead to a pharmacological castration, neither of which can “be made mandatory or ordered by the court,” requiring Chow’s buy-in. The psychiatrist deemed him a low risk to offend provided he did.
Another psychopathy checklist found Chow externalized blame, lacked empathy for victims and that “he may resort to these maladaptive strategies when faced with future stressors or recurrence of his major depressive disorder.”
The judge said his assessments show signs of someone who lacked “insight into their conduct” and cited a section of Chow’s letter as an example.
“I indulged my sexual fantasy to the fullest degree. I wanted to feel young again by associating with young escorts to reassert my virility,” he wrote.
“I am not misogynistic. My actions were never meant to harm, nor were they carried out with violent, malicious or criminal intent. They were pure sexual fantasy merely, nothing more. I was naïve and ignorant not to have realized the criminality of my actions.”
While Chow pleaded guilty to all charges, avoiding having his many victims testify at trial, Mulligan ruled “a substantial period of incarceration” was required and handed down a sentence of 14 years after credit for nearly three years spent in custody.
“Mr. Chow is at a low risk to re-offend provided he consents to treatment such as that described … and maintains sobriety upon release,” Mulligan wrote. “It is in society’s interest that Mr. Chow receives treatment as soon as possible, so that its effectiveness can be monitored and measured.”
It’s not clear what, if any, treatments Chow engaged in while in custody. National Post has contacted the Parole Board of Canada to obtain a copy of his release decision. It’s also unclear if a warning to the public was issued at the time of his release.
Meanwhile, Peel police ask anyone who may have had similar interactions with the accused or people with information to share to contact their special victims unit at 905-453-2121, ext. 3460.
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