A man who Penticton RCMP called a high-risk pedophile has pled guilty to breaches of a recognizance.
Phillipe Ovid Poisson, 19, appeared via video in Penticton provincial courthouse on Monday and was sentenced for three counts of breach of conditions related to not reporting to his supervisor and not residing at his approved residence.
Judge Gale Sinclair sentenced Poisson to 41 days in jail, but since he has been in custody since Jan. 5 he was given credit for those days. Poisson will remain in custody until at least March 31 when a hearing is expected to take place to review the residency conditions of his recognizance.
In July, RCMP issued a public safety bulletin about a high-risk pedophile who had moved to the Penticton area. According to the bulletin, Poisson is a Canadian citizen who recently moved from the United States to Penticton.
Shortly after the bulletin was posted, RCMP executed a court-obtained unendorsed arrest warrant, taking Poisson into custody where he agreed to abide by several conditions permitting his release. Some of the conditions include not to attend any public park, swimming area, day care centre, school ground or playground where persons under the age of 16 are present, to live in an approved residence and abide by a daily curfew between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Crown counsel Susan Greba told the court Poisson had been living at a residence on Ellis Street when on Jan. 4 the supervisor said there had been an altercation where Poisson had smashed some of his belonging and windows. Poisson did not return to the residence and eventually checked into Covenant House in Vancouver, telling them he was looking to stay at another drop-in centre for youth. Greba said Poisson did not contact his supervisor to let him know he was leaving Penticton or changing his residence.
“He is from Pennsylvania and he was hoping to be able to go back and hook up with his mother again. He received some advice, from a source we will not name, that what he should do is go to the coast, obtain ID and get back to the States,” said defence lawyer Jim Pennington. “He then acted on that bad advice.”
Pennington said his client does not have any criminal record in Canada, but does have a record in the U.S.