An RCMP cruiser. Image: staff photo
A high-risk sex offender living in Yarmouth County has been charged following two stalking incidents.
Police say sixty-four-year-old Allen Desrosiers has been charged with two counts of Criminal Harassment after stalking a 25-year-old woman in October and then again this month.
RCMP officers collected surveillance footage in the Water Street area that they say helped provide additional evidence relating to the stalking described by the victim.
Desrosiers was arrested on December 14 and remanded into custody with an appearance in Yarmouth Provincial Court scheduled for December 19.
Allen Desrosiers. c/o Nova Scotia RCMP.
News of the charges come after police notified the public on Wednesday, the same day Desrosiers was arrested, of his presence in the Yarmouth area, saying he has been living in Nova Scotia since August.
Police say he is residing in Rockville.
Desrosiers, a Canadian citizen, was previously convicted, and served a full 23-year sentence in the United States, for charges including kidnapping, rape, assault and battery. His victims were all female and ranged in age from 16 to 47.
RCMP explain why public was not notified prior to the arrest
The Nova Scotia RCMP are offering an explanation for why the public were not told about Desrosiers presence in the province prior to his arrest.
They offered our newsroom the following statement:
Normally when a high-risk offender is set for release from a Canadian Correctional Facility, there are “triggers” under the Nova Scotia High-Risk Offender Protocol that notify the police of jurisdiction prior to the offenders release. As Desrosiers relocated to Canada from the United States, after his release from an American Correctional Facility, the normal “triggers” within the protocol, to notify the police of jurisdiction (in this case us, the NS RCMP), did not exist in this case. In other words, the delay is attributed to Desrosiers relocating to Canada after being released from a correctional facility in a foreign country, which did not trigger the normal protocols. The Nova Scotia High-Risk Offender Notification Protocol is managed by the Department of Justice.
Our newsroom has reached out to the Nova Scotia Department of Justice for more information about the protocol and why the public was not notified about Desrosiers presence in Nova Scotia.
