Matthew Twyne scheduled for bail hearing today
Registered sex offender with history of violating release conditions was arrested Saturday
Matthew Twyne is scheduled for a bail hearing in provincial court in St. John’s Monday, May 9, having been arrested Saturday for allegedly breaching the conditions of his probation again.
Twyne, a registered sex offender, has a history of arrests for breaching court orders, serving jail sentences for them and breaching the terms of his release within a short period of time of his return to the community.
He was last sentenced in November, when Judge Lori Marshall gave him a 395-day jail term — minus 165 days’ credit for his time on remand — and ordered him to wear an electronic monitor device, if deemed appropriate by his probation officer, upon his release. It’s not known whether Twyne had been fitted with a device.
“Protection of the public is the paramount concern here at this stage, given your continued behaviour in thumbing your nose at court orders,” Marshall said in November.
She gave him a three-year probation order that also included counselling and a continued ban from playgrounds, parks, swimming areas, daycares, community centres and any other location known to be frequented by children.
It’s the latter condition Twyne is alleged to have breached Saturday afternoon, when Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers attended the centre city area in response to reports Twyne had been spotted near a school.
Twyne was called in court Sunday and a bail hearing was scheduled for the following day.
Twyne has a 20-page criminal record with convictions for indecent acts — exposing his genitals to women and children — in 2019, 2017, twice in 2014 and twice in 2013. Between the fall of 2013 and March 2021, Twyne violated court orders 24 times.
A social worker testified at Twyne’s sentencing hearing last fall that he had been doing well with his release plan until “social media got absurd” and Twyne became the subject of rumours, public harassment and online warnings from local politicians who had posted his address. She didn’t offer insight into how that may have influenced Twyne to commit the breaches for which he was being sentenced by visiting two Mount Pearl playgrounds.