New charges were laid against convicted child sex-offender Mark Bedford on Friday. Bedford appeared in a Kingston court on Monday to set up a bail hearing that will most likely take place on Thursday.
Kingston police charged Bedford with five counts of breaching a public safety peace bond imposed on him in January 2017.
According to police, Bedford, now 32, had recently accessed the internet, social media and a media storage device and made contact with minors by use of computer, all alleged breaches of the 18-month bond imposed on Bedford in early 2017.
Bedford became notorious in 2008 when police learned the then-22-year-old had been preying on women and young girls on Facebook.
Bedford would first get his victims to send him nude photos through the social media platform, then he would use those photos to blackmail the victims, threatening to release them if they refused to send him more compromising images of themselves.
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Bedford was sentenced to three years in prison, and was released in 2011 after serving his sentence without parole. When he was released, Kingston police applied for a yearlong peace bond, with conditions prohibiting his access to the internet, computers, phones, cameras, storage devices, social media and contact with minors.
Bedford failed to comply to some of the terms of that peace bond and was sent back to jail, only to be released again in 2015 after serving his full sentence.
After his second release, Kingston police applied for another two-year peace bond, with conditions much like those placed on him in 2011. Bedford appealed that bond, but a court ruled against him in early 2017, when the conditions of his release came into effect.
At the time of the imposition of the 2017 peace bond, Justice Larry O’Brien said the convicted pedophile’s sexual recidivism was high, and that it was clear that he could not express any remorse for his actions.
CKWS spoke with Bedford’s lawyer on Monday, Brian Callender, who said his client was arrested on June 7, less than two months away from the end of the bond.
One of Bedford’s 28 conditions under the 2017 peace bond was to allow Kingston police to search his home without a warrant and to check any electronic communications device at his home to ensure he was following the conditions of the bond.
According to Kingston police, Bedford breached five of those conditions between May 7 and June 7.
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