NEW GLASGOW – The National Parole Board approved a request this week that will allow Alexander William Hart to visit his father’s residence.
The former Pictou resident has a criminal record for sex offences that goes back more than 20 years. His preference is to prey on young boys.
In 2001, the Crown in Sydney tried unsuccessfully to have Hart declared a dangerous offender after he'd fondled two boys in the cab of his truck. Hart also had convictions in the 1980s for molesting children.
Instead, a judge handed Hart a long-term offender status. He was sentenced to three years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervision in the community on conditions. That supervision order has been temporarily suspended.
In 2006, Hart was arrested again and accused for offering a neighbour's 10-year-old son and his friends cookies. He had been forbidden from being alone with children. In 2007, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the offence.
The National Parole Board has imposed a total of seven conditions on Hart's long-term supervision order, including a residency condition.
“When the board imposed a residency condition, it was concerned with your lack of support in the community. Of course, that decision was also made in the context of your sexual assault offences and your past breaches of your long-term supervision order,” the parole board stated in a decision to Hart on April 13.
That condition was changed this week to allow Hart to visit his father’s residence. Some of the reasons for the change include Hart’s “resistance to interventions which has altered remarkably over the past year.”
Hart, who had previously resisted taking arousal suppressant medication, has “discontinued with (his) stall tactics” and began taking the medication that has demonstrated progress to the point where he no longer has a preoccupation with sexual thoughts and fantasies. He is also meeting with a psychiatrist and psychologist, which resulted in reestablishing a relationship with his parents, and has secured employment.
“The above has all been achieved without incident,” the board wrote, which prompted the recommendation that weekend leave privileges be authorized.
“You have been able to gain credibility through greater access to the community and you have the support of your father for leave privileges. It is also important that children do not live at the proposed destination,” the board wrote. “In the final analysis, the board is satisfied that weekend leave privileges would not present an undue risk to the public.”
The board is not releasing the location of Hart’s father’s residence.
Hart is classed as a medium-security offender.
