Parole board imposes more restrictions on high-risk offender

A man with a history of violent sexual offences has had almost all of his freedoms stripped away because the Parole Board of Canada feels he is too high-risk to be out in the community.

Gerald Edmund Pike, 55, committed most of his offences in the St. John's area and spent 6½ years in prison before being released in 2021 in the Halifax area on a 10-year, long-term supervision order.

Pike was considered a high risk to reoffend at the time of his release, prompting Halifax Regional Police to issue a warning to the community.

Just a couple of months after his release, Pike was taken back into custody, accused of breaching his supervision order. He was eventually released again, only to be taken back into custody in May of last year.

Three months later, Pike was back at a halfway house. This time, he lasted until Dec. 10, 2023, when he dropped out of sight for a day and was considered unlawfully at large. Pike was returned to the halfway house a couple of days later, but he only lasted a couple of weeks. On New Year's Eve, his supervision order was again suspended because he was refusing to take medication needed to control his sexual urges.

At a hearing last month, the board concluded that "no appropriate program of supervision can be established that would adequately protect society from the risk of your reoffending, and it appears that a breach has occurred."

The board imposed a new condition on Pike, saying that he can only leave the correctional facility where he's living if he has an escort.

His long-term supervision order is scheduled to expire in October 2030.