A 37-year-old registered sex offender from Osoyoos, B.C., has been arrested after a joint investigation into child pornography between police in B.C. and Ontario.
Shawn Barry Titus is charged with possession of child porn and failure to comply with a prohibition order, police said.
Osoyoos RCMP opened the case after receiving information on May 19 from the B.C. RCMP’s Internet Child Exploitation unit and Ontario Provincial Police about an internet account based in their area was accessing child porn.
Officers worked over the next few days to identify the account user and executed a search warrant at a local motel where Titus was staying on May 21, police said.
Titus is known to local authorities. In September 2018, he was sentenced to two years in jail and three years’ probation after admitting to sexually assaulting an underage boy.
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He’d met his victim in 2016 at the Sonora Community Centre in Osoyoos, Global News has learned.
Titus was released from jail in late 2019 and has been residing at the Avalon Inn in Osoyoos.
Titus is alleged to have communicated with young people in an online chat room, against his probation.
Motel operators say they are shocked by the child porn allegations and unaware Titus is a known sex offender.
He is also bound by a 10-year order prohibiting him from attending any public spaces where children may be present or seeking volunteer work or employment where he’d come into contact with anyone under the age of 16.
Titus remains in custody and will appear in Penticton provincial court for a bail hearing on Thursday.
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