Pedophile back in jail for violating parole conditions

One week after police warned the public that a pedophile who had recently been released from jail was living in Calgary, he is back behind bars.

Matthew Ralf Harks, who claims he victimized 60 girls and committed as many as 200 offences in B.C., violated his parole conditions earlier this week and was picked up by police on Wednesday.

"He was taken into custody without incident," police duty inspector Geoff Gawlinski said Thursday. "What the specifics of the parole violations are, I don’t know, but they are revoking his parole."

Gawlinski said Harks, who kept trophies from his victims, was arrested in the 600 block of 13th Avenue S.E. around 3 p.m. after police received a tip from the public.

Police announced last Wednesday that Harks had moved to Calgary after serving a three-year sentence for sexually assaulting a minor. He was being monitored by the service’s high-risk offender program and Corrections Canada through a 10-year, long-term supervision order.