Child molester said to pose risk
A woman convicted of sexually assaulting children will have to reside in a halfway house after completing her sentence due to concerns she is a risk to reoffend following her release.
According to documents from the Parole Board of Canada dated Sept. 1, Madilyn Harks, who was formerly known as Matthew Ralf Harks, will face a residency condition upon her statutory release.
She will also be required to follow a treatment plan, respect a curfew and follow psychological counselling. She will be prohibited from having any contact with children under the age of 18 unless supervised by an adult who is aware of her criminal history, and must avoid locations where children may be expected to congregate.
Harks began serving a three-year sentence for sexual assault against a seven-year-old female in April 2007. She was released in 2010 and began a 10-year long-term supervision order. According to the parole board, that supervision order, which was lifted in July 2014, was “rife with compliance issues.”
Harks was convicted of two breaches in April 2016 and received a 330-day sentence.
The board said one of those breaches related to a long-term relationship with an incarcerated male sex offender that Harks had been in for more than a year without disclosing it to her parole officer.
In the second breach, the parole board said Harks chartered a plane and a taxi to go to a residence in another province to obtain money for the man, whom she was engaged to.
“Your actions were discovered because you did not pay the charter pilot, who contacted the police,” the documents indicate.
At the time of Harks’ offence in 2007, she was on probation following two convictions of sexual assault against two children aged four and five. “You have also admitted to having approximately 60 victims and you estimate having committed 200 offences, with some of those offences being multiple offences against some of your victims,” the parole board stated.
The board noted that in April 2006, Harks was identified in a dangerous offender psychiatric assessment as having an “all encompassing preoccupation with interest in sexually abusing young girls.”
The documents indicate Harks could also be facing charges for three alleged offences that took place recently while she was in custody: assault, unlawful confinement and sexual assault.
“The targets of your alleged offences have children and are considered to be childlike in appearance,” the documents read.
“At the time of writing this decision, there was no indication as to whether Crown would be approving charges.”
Harks has undergone gender reassignment, and legally changed her name sometime between April 2010 and August 2012.