Trout River sex offender jailed after breaching court orders

A Trout River man listed on the sex offender registry was sentenced to four months in jail last week, after he essentially went missing for more than a year and later lied to the registration centre.

Having been convicted of sexual assault a number of years ago, Conrad Crocker was given orders under the Sex Offender Registration Act. Among the orders were requirements to report to the registration centre yearly, as well as within a week of changing residence.

Crocker didn’t report as required and the officials administering his reporting obligations weren’t able to find him. A year later, he didn’t report again.

Officials later learned he had moved to Ontario and was working there. When he finally did check in, he didn’t mention that he had moved.

Crocker, who represented himself in provincial court in Corner Brook on Nov. 4, told Judge Wayne Gorman he had made a mistake and asked him to impose a conditional sentence instead of jail time.

The Crown argued for a period of two to three months in prison.

In delivering his sentencing decision, Gorman noted Crocker’s criminal record spans a significant period of time and is varied, with 31 convictions, 18 of them breaches of court orders. He was sentenced to a month in jail in 2012 for failing to abide by his sex offender orders, the judge said.

A pre-sentence report indicated Crocker had made some positive changes in his life over the past three or four years and had generally been compliant with his orders and focused on his family.

“He also appears to have matured,” the report stated, deeming Crocker a suitable candidate for community supervision. “Whether the accused is willing or able to maintain or continue with these changes, especially in the long term, is unknowable at the present time.”

Gorman didn’t accept Crocker’s argument that he had made a mistake.

“His actions were deliberate,” the judge said. “This was not a mistake and it had the effect of defeating the important societal interest involved when a Sex Offender Information Registration Act order is issued.”

Gorman said he had taken into account the positive elements of Crocker’s pre-sentence report, his guilty plea and his family circumstances. He had also considered Crocker’s history of refusing to abide by court orders and his conviction for having broken the sex offender order in the past.

Gorman determined a conditional sentence wasn’t appropriate, saying he wasn’t confident Crocker would abide by it and didn’t believe it met the sentencing principles of deterrence.

“I am satisfied that a period of imprisonment is the only reasonable sentence that can be imposed,” Gorman said. “When a sex offender is ordered to comply with a Sex Offender Information Registration Act order, there must be significant consequences for failing to do so.”

Breaching the order, the judge said, defeats the whole purpose of the legislation, which is to help police prevent and investigate sex crimes, including crimes against children.

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