Monday, October 13, 2014

New moniker, criminal pardon allowed Ontario predator to fly under police radar

ST. THOMAS - He ran from his past, but couldn't escape who he is.

Nearly 30 years ago, James Dean Barnett was convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy while Barnett volunteered at a London children's agency.

This week, in court in St. Thomas, he sat waiting to be sentenced on four more sex charges against children - three neighbourhood kids, ages eight to 10, and a boy from his past who's now an adult.

But there was a twist: Barnett was now 49-year-old Tyler Giles.

He'd changed his name 11 years ago.

He'd also got a criminal pardon following his 1986 convictions, on two counts of sexual assault.

His old crimes wiped, and using a new name, a convicted child predator - one found four times more likely to reoffend than the typical sex offender - flew under radar and found new ways to be with more kids.

The case is "a monument to our failures in the past" to take child sexual abuse seriously, one expert says.  (more...)



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