High-risk sex offender Kenneth Kirton arrested after latest halfway house walkaway

VANCOUVER — A high-risk sex offender with an extensive, decades-long record of failing to return to community supervision was arrested Thursday after the latest in a series of walkaways from a Downtown Eastside halfway house, Vancouver police say..Kenneth Nolan Kirton, 59, signed out of the facility on Wednesday and did not return. Police issued a Canada-wide warrant and publicly warned that the designated dangerous offender was at large. He was taken into custody later Thursday and remains detained..Kirton was first convicted of sexual assault back in 1987. Upon release in 2012, he was the subject of a warrant for attempted murder and robbery after a 73-year-old relative who he stabbed multiple times in her Vancouver home..Kirton, then 45 and living in Surrey, was charged with attempted murder, robbery, and failing to comply with an undertaking.Kirton has been living under a 10-year long-term supervision order following his release from custody. In Canadian law, a long-term supervision order, with a maximum of 10 years, is imposed after an offender has served the prison portion of their sentence..Kirton is considered a high risk to reoffend sexually. Police described him as approximately 5-foot-4 and 135 pounds, with short black hair, brown eyes, a scar on his left cheek and multiple tattoos, including a skull on his right forearm..This is at least the fourth time in recent years that Kirton has failed to return to a halfway house as required, triggering public alerts and Canada-wide warrants. Similar absences occurred in March and June 2021, April 2022, and April 2023. In the 2023 incident, he was arrested near China Creek Park after reports of a man acting erratically..No further details were released about the circumstances of Thursday’s arrest or any additional charges arising from the latest breach. Kirton remains in custody for now.

High-risk sex offender Kenneth Kirton arrested after latest halfway house walkaway

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