MONTREAL - The two day coroner's inquest into the death of Julie Surprenant, a teenager who went missing more than 12 years ago, ended on Wednesday with a call to open up Quebec's sex offender database.

"The database is public, we paid for it and we should be allowed to get into that bank of information," said Mark Bellemare, the attorney who represented the Surprenant family.

Right now, only a few police officers in Quebec can consult the registry.

The request was just one of the recommendations Bellemare had for coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier. The lawyer also wants health and social services workers to be obliged to go to police when they hear a confession.

The prime suspect in the disappearance and death of Julie was Richard Bouillon. When he was dying of cancer in a Laval hospital six years ago, Bouillon told an auxiliary nurse and an orderly that he had killed Julie and dumped her body in the Mile Iles River inside a weighted sports bag.

Two correctional services guard also heard the confession, but no one went to police.

"All citizens who have witnessed testimony have an obligation to go to the police when they know that a crime has been committed," said Michel Surprenant, Julie's father.

Michel said when he found out through the media that Bouillon was dying and asked that the police be allowed to talk to the suspect. The request was denied.

Bouillon died at the age of 52, on June 22, 2006, at Laval's Cite de la Sante Hospital. He had been serving a six-and-a-half year sentence for rape, molestation, sexual assault and drug-trafficking.

Michel had moved to Terrebonne because he thought it was safe. He asked his landlord about the neighbours and was told there was nothing out of the ordinary. However, Bouillon was one of the neighbours and he had a record as a sexual predator.

The father says he hopes the coroner's inquest will help change things.

"Alone I can't change things, but I hope that public pressure will help us get change," said Michel. "Sitting through this testimony was excessively difficult, but it was necessary."

The coroner, Rudel-Tessier, has not speculated yet as to whether the rights of victims and families will be the focus of the report she will write.