Parole Board records detail high-risk offender's sex crimes against children

Donald Duane Bartlett has sexually assaulted boys and girls ranging from babies to age 11 over the past 25 years, Parole Board of Canada records show.

Halifax police issued a public warning this week that Bartlett, considered a high-risk sex offender, is moving to the Halifax area.

In the latest case, according to documents, Bartlett used an internet chat line to engage in a conversation with another man where the two plotted to sexually assault children from infants to 10-year-olds.

"The two of you shared images, videos and written stories that constitute child pornography," the board wrote in an Aug. 3 decision.

In 2015, Bartlett, now 49, was sentenced in Alberta for distribution of child pornography, printing/publishing child pornography, possession of child pornography and counselling another person to commit an indictable offence that was not committed. Those offences happened in 2012.

After a judge reduced Bartlett's original 10.5-year sentence sentence to eight years, and granted him credit for time served, he had two years and 10 months left to serve. Bartlett was in custody since his arrest in 2012.

Halifax Regional Police issued a warning because Bartlett remains a high risk for sexually assaulting children

The parole board records also say that Bartlett also encouraged other predators to engage in sexual acts with children and started relationships with young women with daughters and then sexually assaulted the children.

Explicit images found on computer

When police searched his home in 2012,  they seized his computer and found upwards of 841 thumbnail caches of child pornography, 24 videos showing children engaged in sexual activity and 15 stories describing children engaged in sexual activity.

"You were described as a 'high profile contributor' and an advocate of explicit sexual exploitation of infants and pre-pubescent children, actively engaged between 1998 and 2012," the board wrote.

Bartlett's criminal record

Bartlett's criminal record dates back to 1990. That year, he sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl whom he was babysitting.

In 1998, he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and to sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl he met at a lake, followed into a bush and touched above her clothing. That same year, Bartlett told police he had sexually assaulted another girl while she slept.

He also repeatedly sexually assaulted the young daughter of a woman he met online in 2000. Those incidents happened while Bartlett was babysitting the child and the mother was at work. The girl was between age eight and 10.

"She was told not to tell and feared your threats of suicide," the documents say.

Failed to disclose sex offender status 

In 2002, Bartlett moved to another country and did not tell local authorities that he was a registered sex offender in Canada. He was deported back to Canada two years later.

In 2005, he was convicted of another sexual assault and invitation to sexual touching.

The board noted that Bartlett minimizes his actions, lacks remorse or empathy and does not understand how his actions impact others.

In one psychological risk-assessment report, he is quoted as saying that he "will likely always continue to be attracted to under-aged females and that even hearing the voice of a child can trigger feelings of sexual excitement."

Bartlett has also been designated as a long-term offender and must abide by a number of strict conditions in the community for the next 10 years.

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