Convicted sex offender Matthew Twyne is back behind bars for the second time since October.
Police arrested Twyne, 34, on Dec. 23 and charged him with two counts of breaching a probation order after receiving reports from members of the public allegedly placing him near downtown facilities frequented by children.
Twyne made two short appearances in provincial court last week and is scheduled to make his next one Jan. 7 for a bail hearing.
He had been released from custody only days before his arrest, having served jail time for two counts of breaching court orders in October. Twyne was arrested at Quidi Vidi Lake Oct. 14 after an off-duty sheriff’s officer passed by and noticed him sitting on the side of the bandstand.
A registered sex offender for life, Twyne is banned from attending public parks and swimming areas where children under 16 would be expected, as well as all playgrounds, community centres, schoolgrounds and daycares.
Twyne had been bound by a year-long special order with more than two dozen strict conditions meant to limit his activities for the purpose of public protection. That order expired one week before his arrest in October.
Twyne has close to 100 criminal convictions, including seven for committing indecent acts in public. A year ago he was sentenced to 18 months in jail, minus credit for time served, for exposing himself to two women walking along the Long Pond trail two months earlier. At that point he had been out of jail for just three days, having completed a federal term of incarceration for exposing himself to children at a local dance school.
Twyne had gone to the dance studio in 2017, looked into the change room where children between 14 and 16 years old were getting ready, and pressed his bare penis against the glass of the studio window. Staff told him to leave twice; he returned twice. When he was arrested, police found he was carrying a hunting knife.
As Twyne finished his federal sentence, the Crown successfully argued for a special order forcing him to abide by a list of 29 conditions upon his release, since he had been deemed by police and the parole board to be at a high risk to reoffend. Those conditions included that he stay away from a handful of places in the St. John’s area, including Memorial University, Larkhall Academy, Leary’s Brook Junior High School, the Guv’nor Inn and anywhere selling alcohol; that he abide by a curfew; that he report to the RNC once a week and notify them of any plans to change address and any vehicle to which he had access; that he not associate with anyone with a criminal record; that he have no cellphone with the capacity to take photos or video; and that he not have any contact with any of the complainants in his cases nor their family members.
Those conditions were ordered Oct. 8, 2019 for a period of one year.
“This is a public safety issue,” prosecutor Jennifer Lundrigan said at Twyne’s sentencing hearing in December 2019, pointing out that the only time there were gaps in his criminal record were periods when he was in custody. “The Crown would submit that Mr. Twyne is an extremely poor candidate for rehabilitation, and rehabilitation at this point may well be impossible. The best way for us to keep the public safe is for him to be incarcerated.”
Once a person has completed a criminal sentence, neither federal nor provincial courts nor corrections authorities can keep them in custody.
A special 810 order, like the one by which Twyne had been bound, is sought by the Crown in extreme situations in order to limit a person’s movement and activity.
“That is an option which is only available in rare circumstances, when there is clear evidential basis to believe someone is a danger to the public or specific members of the public,” Lloyd Strickland, the province’s director of public prosecutions, told The Telegram.
One exception is if a person is formally designated a dangerous offender, in which case they are given an indeterminate jail sentence and held in custody until they are deemed to no longer pose a danger to the public. The designation usually results in a life sentence.
The Crown can’t request and a judge can’t impose whatever sentence they personally feel is appropriate for a crime, since they are bound by the limits of sentencing in the Criminal Code of Canada. The code sets out maximum and, in some cases, minimum sentences that can be imposed for any offence. By law, courts must also apply sentences similar to what other offenders across the country have received in similar circumstances.
