Convicted B.C. sex offender arrested just hours after his release

A convicted sex offender from Port Alberni who served five and a half years in prison was arrested hours after he was released.

John Ambrose Seward was arrested by Nanaimo RCMP on Thursday evening for allegedly being in a public park, breaching one of his release conditions. He was peacefully taken into custody and awaits a hearing with a judge on April 7.

“The safety of our community is paramount and this action was necessary to ensure our community remains safe,” said Superintendent Mark Fisher, Officer in Charge of the Nanaimo RCMP.

“If and when Seward is released back into the community, this enforcement action will continue.”

Seward had been in jail since 2009 for a series of aggravated sexual assaults in the Port Alberni area. He was released on Thursday and arrived in Nanaimo from Vancouver that afternoon.

B.C. Corrections put out a public notification later that afternoon, saying he was a “high-risk” offender that had “maintained a pattern of predatory and opportunistic violent sexual offending”. They listed his 19 court-ordered conditions – one of which was not to be in a public park.