ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A provincial court judge denied Matthew Twyne bail Thursday afternoon, saying he was concerned for the safety of the public, particularly children, given the sex offender’s repeated arrests.
“There is obviously what appears to be a definite problem of a sexual nature, the degree of which I don’t have any evidence on here today,” Judge Colin Flynn said. “The real problem that I have is the piece regarding behaviour modification. Because of this particular behaviour and the fact that these activities continue to occur, is there a substantial likelihood that he would commit other offences? On a balance of probability, I have to answer yes.”
A registered sex offender for life, Twyne has been in custody since Dec. 23, when police arrested him after receiving a report placing him near a downtown recreation facility that caters to children. Twyne, who attended his bail hearing by video from Her Majesty's Penitentiary, is banned from attending public parks, playgrounds, schools, community centres and other locations where children would be expected.
A woman driving past the facility early in the afternoon on Dec. 19 allegedly noticed Twyne in the parking lot of MAX on St. Clare Avenue, lingering around the side of the building. Although she didn’t know his name, she recognized him from news coverage.
RNC officers arrested Twyne four days later and charged him with two counts of breaching court orders.
At the time he was spotted near MAX, Twyne had been out of jail for not much more than a day, having been sentenced Oct. 20 for similar breaches. An off-duty sheriff had passed by Quidi Vidi Lake and noticed Twyne sitting on the side of the bandstand, and called police to report him.
Twyne has 100 criminal convictions on his record, including seven for committing indecent acts in public. Among those offences was a 2019 incident in which he exposed himself to two women walking on the Long Pond Trail, three days after being released from jail upon completing a federal sentence for exposing himself to children at a St. John’s dance school.
Representing Twyne, lawyer Leslie Pike called an Eastern Health social worker to testify. The woman told the court she had been working with Twyne since the end of 2019, visiting him in Her Majesty’s Penitentiary until the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to connect over the phone instead. She explained she had secured a housing unit for Twyne, away from his list of banned locations, and expressed confidence that Twyne would do better if he was released with a stable place to live.
“Matthew will, really for the first time, have a connection to the community,” the social worker said. “He has been, to be frank, excluded from a lot of services, given his history.”
The social worker acknowledged on cross-examination that Twyne had previously been assessed as at a high risk to reoffend.
She told the court the living space would be lost if Twyne wasn’t released to move in.
Prosecutor Richard Deveau argued against Twyne’s bail, saying the public would lose faith in the justice system if the sex offender was released again.
Deveau presented the judge with a story from Monday’s Telegram, reporting on the outrage and anger displayed by readers each time Twyne is arrested.
“There is already a public outrage in regard to Mr. Twyne that was reported on Monday morning, actually,” Deveau told the judge. “When articles about Mr. Twyne do come out, they get a lot of backlash from the public as to why he continuously gets released or why he’s back in the community. It speaks to the fact that whenever The Telegram or other news outlets put out articles about Mr. Twyne, it sparks outrage from the public who comment on them.”
Sometimes the outrage is a result of a misunderstanding of the legal process, Deveau said, but he added, “From the Crown’s perspective we’re at that line where the public might start to lose some confidence in the administration of justice if Mr. Twyne keeps offending and keeps getting released.”
Flynn noted the work done by the social worker and others in helping Twyne to try to reintegrate in the community and the importance of housing for offenders reintegrating in the community, but said he was concerned about Twyne’s need for behaviour intervention, which hadn’t yet been arranged.
“I cannot release Mr. Twyne, unfortunately, despite all the good work that has been done by everyone,” Flynn said. “I have to be concerned about the safety of the public, especially individuals under the age of 18. I will deny bail on that basis.”
