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UPDATE: Child sex offender charged with theft in Abbotsford is again released from custody

Police issued public warning in March after Shaun Deacon was released from prison
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Shaun Joshua Deacon is shown in an older photo (left) and an updated one from March 2022.

A notorious child sexual offender who was released in Abbotsford last month was briefly back in custody this week after being arrested for theft.

Shaun Deacon, 56, has been charged with theft under $5,000 for an incident on Tuesday (April 5), according to the provincial court database. His bail hearing was on Thursday (April 7), and he was released on court-ordered conditions.

Const. Paul Walker, media officer with the Abbotsford Police Department (APD), said the theft was related to shoplifitng at a business in the 32700 block of South Fraser Way. He could not reveal further details because the matter is now before the courts.

“The AbbyPD continues to closely monitor Mr.Deacon while he’s out in our community and will continue to take enforcement action when a crime has been committed,” he said.

The APD issued a public warning about Deacon on March 18, the day he was being released from Matsqui Institution. They did not indicate in which area of the city Deacon would be living.

He was released from prison because he had served his full sentence of three years and eight months for three breaches of his long-term supervision order in July 2018.

Deacon has convictions for sexual offences against children in 1988, 1996 and 1998, as well as breaches of long-term supervision orders in 2002, 2009, 2014 and 2018.

RELATED: One of nation’s ‘most notorious child molesters’ being released in Abbotsford

The Parole Board of Canada, in a review of his detention order last October, voted to keep him in prison at that time, saying he was at a high risk to re-offend.

According to previous news reports, Deacon was sentenced to seven years in prison in the 1980s for assaulting four young children. While awaiting sentencing in Kelowna, he abducted a previous victim and assaulted the child again.

He re-offended and was jailed twice more in the 1990s.

His court-ordered conditions when living in the community include a lifetime ban from attending public parks, swimming areas, school grounds, daycare centres, playgrounds or community centres where kids under the age of 14 are present or are expected to be present.

He also has a lifetime ban from working or volunteering in a capacity that involves being in a position of trust or authority towards anyone under 14 years old.

Deacon also has a ban on contact with kids under the age of 16 and is prohibited from possessing any electronics that can access the internet.



vhopes@abbynews.com

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Vikki Hopes

About the Author: Vikki Hopes

I have been a journalist for almost 40 years, and have been at the Abbotsford News since 1991.
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