Police are on the lookout for a convicted sex offender who hasn’t returned to a Halifax halfway house.
Joseph Jacko Obed was staying at a local halfway house, but last Monday Halifax Regional Police say he signed out and didn’t return, resulting in a warrant being issued for his arrest.
Police say despite their best efforts, they haven’t located Obed, who most recently has been serving a two-year federal term for four break and enters in HRM dating back to 2008, and for failing to adhere to the rules of the national sex offender registry.
He also has various other previous convictions, including several for sexual assault, none of which are believed to have taken place in Nova Scotia.
Obed was released from prison last September and put in a halfway house in Halifax as part of the Canadian government’s statutory release program that requires federally sentenced offenders — except those serving life — to serve the final third of a sentence in a community under supervision and conditions similar to full parole.
“We have no information to suggest he’s left the area,” Halifax Regional Police spokesman Brian Palmeter said of Obed, who is originally from Newfoundland and Labrador and is deemed a high risk to reoffend by police. “All of our involvement has been with property crimes, however that’s not to say he hasn’t been involved in other things in other jurisdictions.”
According to records from the National Parole Board issued last June, Obed has been in jail seven different times — including four times federally.
Also, despite completing both a sex offender program and substance abuse treatment, he “has repeatedly abused substances, especially alcohol, and (has) reoffended in a sexual manner following these interventions.”
The parole board also deemed his reintegration potential to be low.
