The man who shot and killed a Surrey RCMP officer in 1974 has pleaded guilty to multiple counts of indecent assault, some dating back more than four decades.

Court records show John Harvey Miller committed the crimes in Langley in 1963, 1964 and 1971.

Other charges of gross indecency and one count of indecent assault on a female were stayed.

Miller will be sentenced July 10 in Kamloops Provincial Court.

The 63-year-old is currently allowed outside prison under parole with two restrictions, one forbidding him from being alone with anyone under the age of 16, the other banning him from drinking.

Miller has a poor record in prison, where he racked up 34 institutional charges for making bootleg liquor and earned a reputation for a sometimes belligerent and challenging attitude.

However, he is rated a low risk to re-offend because of his age and poor health, including the after-effects of a stroke that left him paralyzed on his left side.

Miller shot and killed 23-year-old Surrey RCMP Const. Roger Pierlet on March 29, 1974.

Miller, a commercial fisherman who lived with his mother, had gone looking to kill a cop after Miller's brother died in a high-speed chase with Langley police four days earlier.

Around 4 a.m. Miller tossed a bottle through the Cloverdale courthouse window.

Officer Pierlet was called to investigate an act of vandalism.

When Pierlet walked up to Miller's car to ask for his driver's licence, he was killed by a single rifle shot.

The officer died on the same day his parents and fiancee had left Montreal to fly to Vancouver to plan Pierlet's marriage.

Miller was sentenced to hang, but his sentence was changed to life imprisonment after Ottawa eliminated the death penalty.

Pierlet is one of four Surrey RCMP officers who died in the line of duty who appear on a granite wall of honour at Surrey RCMP headquarters.

The wall displays pictures of the four officers, with brief biographies of each along with the RCMP motto of "Maintien le Droit" (Maintain the Right).

dferguson@surreyleader.com