Notorious B.C. pedophile caught hiding electronic device in Vancouver halfway house, destroys it, starts fire

Parole Board of Canada report outlines Shaun Deacon’s 40 years of child sex offending, ongoing refusal to abide by court-ordered conditions

March 27, 2026

Christmas Day 2025 was not a good one for Canada’s most notorious pedophile or his fellow residents of a Vancouver halfway house where he caused a fire while destroying a tablet he was caught illegally with in his bed.

At 60 years old in 2026, Shaun Joshua Deacon has been sexually offending against children his entire adult life. It in the 1980s when he was first convicted of sexual offences against a five-year-old girl and three boys under the age of 13. 

While awaiting sentencing for some of those offences, he abducted a child in Kelowna. He has later sexual assault convictions in 1996 and 1998, and breaches of supervision orders in 2002, 2009, 2014, 2018, and at least twice since then.

And he’s still at it, now facing three new criminal charges in connection with the Christmas incident: breach of a long-term sentence (LTSO) order; failing to comply with a prohibition order; and mischief under $5,000.

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Deacon had been living in the community under an LTSO in October 2025, when he was arrested for child pornography. At that time, Crown applied for dangerous offender designation but Judge Paul Sandhu gave him the lesser long-term offender designation, three years in prison followed by the 10-year LTSO.

Because of time in custody, that sentence behind bars ended in December 2025 when he was sent to live at Belkin House in downtown Vancouver, a 30-bed halfway house for male federal offenders re-integrating into the community.

It was there at bedtime on Dec. 25, 2025, as staff at Belkin House were conducting curfew checks. An employee saw Deacon laying in bed with a blanket propped up obscuring something that was projecting a “significant amount of light” on his face, according to a Parole Board of Canada (PBC) decision obtained by Something Worth Reading. 

When staff then saw the electronic tablet partially covered by his blanket, Deacon was asked if he was in possession of something not permitted by conditions of his LTSO. He responded that he was, but he refused to give it up. Staff continued their curfew check during which the halfway house fire alarm went off. Deacon left his room and apologized to staff admitting he caused the fire.

“Upon search of your room, staff saw a large amount of smoke, as well as a scorch mark on the floor and you were carrying a garbage bag containing what appeared to be the remnants of your tablet and some other items and stated that you ‘took care of it.’”

Video evidence showed Deacon then throwing the destroyed tablet in the garbage. He was told to retrieve it but only handed in the shattered screen and some pieces of the frame. Firefighters arrived some time later to retrieve the hazardous material.

This behaviour triggered a warrant for arrest for breaching a court-ordered condition by the Correctional Service of Canada’s (CSC) 24/7 National Monitoring Centre.

”You requested to speak to [Belkin House] staff and stated that you wanted to apologize for your actions and stated that you broke the tablet out of anger because you were angry at yourself and reiterated that you put out the fire by flushing the broken table in the toilet,” according to the PBC decision.

“Local police arrived and you were arrested without incident.”

While packing up his room, staff found a MicroSD card, a SD card adapter, a Lexar storage device, two zip ties, and the home button from a tablet.

Vancouver police recommended charges, and Deacon was charged with the LTSO breach, failing to comply with prohibition order, and mischief. He had a brief appearance in Vancouver Provincial Court on March 20 and is next due in court on April 16.

Now what for a habitually recalcitrant offender? 

Now that he has been re-arrested and charged with breaching his LTSO and the mischief, Deacon should remain behind bars but may be released from federal custody when it is resolved to continue on his LTSO, which doesn’t expire until 2035.

Any new sentence he receives for the new charges will be served in federal prison even if it is less than two years. This is an LTSO interruption, and the LTSO will continue after that.

All Deacon’s previous conditions while on the LTSO remain in effect, such as reporting relationships, staying away from children or other sex offenders, no internet access, and requirement to live at a CSC-approved facility. 

The PBC also imposed three more conditions, all three of which were opposed by Deacon’s lawyer: he’s not allowed to use a storage locker unless approved in writing by his parole supervisor; he can’t own more than one mobile communication device and has to provide all usage; and he can’t operate a motor vehicle.

His lawyer argued that he needs a storage locker for his belongings so he should be allowed one that he gives access to by his parole supervisor. Deacon is a 60-year-old diabetic with bad knees who doesn’t move well so a car might be needed, he argued. And part of the telecommunication order was for him to hand in all records of his usage, including incoming and outgoing calls, something not provided by phone companies any more.

The Parole board rejected with all three arguments. Given that he lit a tablet on fire when caught with it by staff, “the Board notes that should you be allowed a storage locker, or a motor vehicle, the confidence that you will provide access on demand, is non-existent.”

Then there is the fact that while out on release from Matsqui Institution in spring 2022 he was arrested for shoplifting from a store near Sevenoaks Shopping Centre in Abbotsford. A few weeks after that, he was seen in a parking lot in a car with a laptop computer with child pornography tabs open. He was arrested and his computer was found with a unique video and 2,337 images of what authorities call child sexual abuse and exploitation material.

“Given your history of criminal activity with a storage locker in which you stored items for criminal activity, as well as viewed child pornography in a vehicle, the Board finds that your risk cannot be managed in the absence of such conditions,” according to the Feb. 23, 2026 PBC decision.

As for any difficulty with phone records, Deacon was ordered to contact his provider and get a full monthly paper statement.

“The Board finds that you have struggled to address your outstanding risk factors and continue to demonstrate an unwillingness to abide by the conditions of your LTSO,” the decision concludes. “The Board finds it incredibly concerning that you would go to such lengths to conceal what was on the device, instead of turning the device over to staff.”

Once any more time is served, Deacon will likely again be released as part of his LTSO to live at the Salvation Army-run Belkin House or possibly the Community Correctional Centre (CCC) in Chilliwack. 

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Paul J. Henderson
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