Vancouver police say a high-risk sex offender wanted on a Canada-wide warrant is in custody after being arrested at the University of British Columbia yesterday.
Police issued a public warning Friday night as officers searched for 45-year-old Jason Anthony White after he breached a condition of his release.
He was arrested at around 3:30 a.m. Saturday, on the grounds of a UBC construction site. He was found alone, just blocks from where a year-end party with thousands of students had just concluded.
Vancouver Police Constable Brian Montague said they don’t know why White was on campus, but they’ll be analyzing his movements from the past few months while he remains in police custody.
White, who is also known as Jason Eugene Rindero, was convicted in the robbery and sexual assault of an elderly woman in Nanaimo more than 20 years ago.
In 2002, a trial judge declared him a dangerous offender.
“Mr. Rindero is of high risk for sexual violence….Mr. Rindero has not responded to past treatment. There is no indication whatsoever that he might respond to further treatment,” wrote the judge.
“I have no doubt but that Mr. Rindero must be controlled for the remainder of his life…The only way the public can be protected from his conduct is with the imposition of an open-ended sentence.”
WATCH: New safety measures were in place for UBC’s year-end party. Catherine Urquhart reports.
White successfully appealed the designation, and since 2013 had been living at a Vancouver halfway house.
Police say White is also a person of interest in an attempted home invasion in the Oakridge neighbourhood on Thursday.
White had a curfew, but experts say sometimes parole conditions aren’t enough.
“We have to recognize that in some cases, it’s not going to be sufficient,” said SFU Psychology Professor Stephen Hart.
“Nothing short of putting somebody in shackles and having an officer with them 24 hours a day would prevent them from committing another offence.”
White was still seen as a risk
White served eight years in prison for a violent sexual assault, and was released in 2013 – even though officials recognized he was at high risk of causing serious harm or even death.
“According to the most recent psychological risk assessment, you remain a high risk for general, violent and sexual reoffending,” wrote the parole board in a long-term supervision review earlier this year.
He had 34 previous convictions, but the parole board said because he served his full sentence, their hands were tied.
“The board detained him past the statutory release date. In the case of his long-term supervision order, the board imposed the most restrictive conditions it possibly could,” said Patrick Storey of the Parole Board of Canada.
White is one of about 60 people in the province with a long-term supervision order. Most are sex offenders, and police say any number of them could be responsible for recent attacks at UBC and around the lower mainland.
“In this case the system’s not working. We’ve got to find a way that individuals like this are kept off the street and locked up where they belong,” said NDP justice critic Mike Farnworth.
“It’s just not right that somebody has to be assaulted or injured before this individual gets put behind bars again.”
– With files from Tanya Beja