He can't stop: Notorious pedophile Shaun Deacon who raped 4 children in the 1980s back behind bars

He lasted a little over a month living with ‘long-term offender’ label in a Vancouver halfway house before allegedly violating release conditions

If Shaun Joshua Deacon auditioned for a Hollywood movie role as a pedophilic sex offender he likely wouldn’t get the part. He’s too on the nose.

The balding, chinless, dead-eyed 60-year-old who raped four children in the 1980s and hasn’t stopped offending since then is apparently back behind bars after a short stint at a halfway house in Vancouver where he violated conditions of his release.

Deacon was in provincial court in Abbotsford on Oct. 20 2025, convicted of accessing and possessing child pornography. Crown counsel applied for a dangerous offender designation but Judge Paul Sandhu instead gave him the lesser long-term offender (LTO) designation.

Sandhu sentenced Deacon to three years in prison as part of the LTO followed by a 10-year long-term supervision order (LTSO), the maximum.

Because he had spent nearly three years in custody with 1.5-to-one credit for time served, his sentence ended in early December 2025. He was then sent to live at Belkin House in downtown Vancouver, a 30-bed halfway house for male federal offenders re-integrating into the community.

According to a source, some time between then and January, Deacon allegedly violated a condition of his release, allegedly by using an electronic device. A spokesperson for the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) could not confirm that because of restrictions under the Privacy Act. 

“We can confirm that Shaun Deacon is currently under CSC’s jurisdiction and that he is serving a court-ordered long-term supervision order (LTSO),” the spokesperson told Something Worth Reading. “His LTSO will expire on November 16, 2035. Of note, temporary absences don’t apply in this case.”

When an LTSO is issued, CSC administers it similarly to a conditional release, and the LTSO begins when the offender has finished serving all sentences.

If an offender is deemed to have violated conditions or is otherwise unmanageable in the community, they can refer the matter to the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) to recommend laying a new charge under the criminal code for a breach of an LTSO.

A spokesperson for PBC did not immediately respond to questions about Deacon’s status sent on Wednesday (Jan. 21, 2026), but this story will be updated if and when they do.

Unrepentant pedophile

Shaun Joshua Deacon is one of Canada’s most notorious pedophile offenders first convicted of sexual offences against a five-year-old girl and three boys under the age of 13 in the 1980s. 

While Deacon was awaiting sentencing for his first offences against children, he abducted a child in Kelowna. He also has sexual assault convictions in 1996 and 1998, and he breached supervision orders in 2002, 2009, 2014, 2018, and at least twice since then.

“His offences follow a predictable pattern,” according to a B.C. Court of Appeal decision from 2004. “He ‘grooms’ children by winning their affection and confidence and then he sexually abuses them.”

Deacon was released from Matsqui Institution on March 18, 2022, and the Abbotsford Police Department (APD) issued a public notification that he would be living in the area. A few weeks later he was arrested for shoplifting from a store on South Fraser Way near Sevenoaks Shopping Centre. He was sentenced to another three months jail. 

Then on April 27, 2022, officers with the Integrated Sexual Offender Observation Team spotted Deacon in a Wendy’s parking lot on a lap-top computer. An officer noticed tabs open on a web browser related to child pornography. He was arrested and his computer was found with one unique video and 2,337 images of what authorities call child sexual abuse and exploitation material (CSAEM). His browser history was found with child pornography websites.

On Oct. 20, 2025, Deacon sat in the prisoner’s box in courtroom 306 in the Abbotsford Law Courts looking much older than his 60 years. He wore corrections-issued orange track suit. He's obese, grey and balding with a grey beard and glasses, and he uses a walker that he may not actually need, according to a source.

To that point, after Deacon was sentenced that day and the sheriff remotely unlocked the heavy steel door, Deacon opened it with one arm then picked up his walker with the other and passed it through ahead of himself.

If he is charged with breaching a long-term supervision order under section 763.3 of the Criminal Code he could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. 

If he is charged but isn’t sentenced to any more time behind bars, his LTSO will continue and he could be ordered to live in a federal halfway house again. His LTSO doesn’t expire until Nov. 16, 2035.

While this is highly speculative, Deacon could next be coming to Chilliwack, home to one of the two locations the judge considered during his child porn sentencing in October: the Community Correctional Centre (CCC) in Chilliwack or the Salvation Army run Belkin House in Vancouver. 

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Paul J. Henderson
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