Photo: Castanet

A Kamloops pedophile who was labelled a dangerous offender after luring young boys for sex has been sentenced to time served and nearly three years of probation for violating the terms of a protection order by Googling images of boys’ swimwear.

William Paul Willan was sentenced Friday in Kamloops provincial court after pleading guilty to two counts of breach. He violated a protection order put in place to curb his offending, as well as a bail order restricting his use of cellphones.

The 59-year-old has a history of breaching such conditions.

In 2005, Willan was sentenced to three years in prison following a sexual assault conviction. In that case, he used walkie-talkies to lure boys as young as five.

Willan was labelled a dangerous offender and placed on a 10-year supervision order, the conditions of which he violated repeatedly. His release was suspended nine times due to breaches before the order expired.

Repeated breaches

The two offences for which Willan was sentenced Friday took place last year.

On May 4, his girlfriend called police to report a breach. She said they were sitting together that day at a downtown coffee shop when Willan picked up her cellphone.

“She said he grabbed it off the coffee table where they were sitting and he used it to surf the internet,” Crown prosecutor Andrew Duncan said in court.

"She said he used the phone to look for images of swimsuits, and she knows this because he showed the photos to her.”

The woman took screenshots of the searches and gave them to police and Willan was arrested.

He was released on bail on July 26, and it didn’t take him long to breach. When Willan reported to his probation officer three days after his release, on July 29, she watched him pull a cellphone out of his pocket — a clear violation of one of his bail conditions.

Willan was re-arrested for that offence on Aug. 8 and had been in custody since.

Kamloops provincial court Judge Mariann Armstrong sentenced Willan to 300 days time served, plus 34 months of probation.

Willan will be bound by a number of strict conditions while on probation, including one that prohibits him from having any contact with anyone under 18.

He will also be barred from accessing the internet unless under the supervision of someone approved of by his probation officer and required to take sex offender treatment programming, among other conditions.