Updated: Vancouver police have arrested high-risk sex offender Darren Wheatley without incident, according to a VPD media release Saturday morning. Wheatley had escaped his halfway house for the third time in less than two years on Thursday night.
Previous: Vancouver police are searching for a high-risk sex offender missing since Thursday night.
Police say two-time federal offender Darren Wheatley, 45, failed to report to his halfway house and is now wanted Canada-wide for breaking his court-imposed release conditions.
Wheatley served a 10-year sentence for crimes including two counts of sexual assault, sexual assault causing bodily harm, and two counts of overcoming resistance by choking, police say. The charges followed three separate attacks on women in Ontario.
This isn’t the first time Wheatley has escaped his halfway house. In March 2015 he was arrested at a Surrey drop-in centre; a year earlier he was discovered in Kelowna.
Wheatley is described as 6-0 tall, and 230 lbs. with a large build. He has short black hair and brown eyes, with tattoos of a cow, a skull and a feather on his right upper arm and a script design on his left upper arm.
Police are asking anyone who sees Wheatley, or has information on his whereabouts to call 911 immediately.
