Man convicted of pornography possession returns to court

Brian Nowazek, one of two Yukon men convicted of possessing child pornography earlier this year, was back in court this week after being caught using a computer.

Brian Nowazek, one of two Yukon men convicted of possessing child pornography earlier this year, was back in court this week after being caught using a computer.

The 43-year-old man is barred from using computers, cell phones or in any way accessing the Internet as part of his punishment for downloading thousands of images of child sexual abuse.

In addition to the child pornography conviction here, Nowazek also has a decades-old conviction for molesting a young child in Arizona, where he spent almost 10 years in jail and was classified as a lifetime offender.

Since his release last May, Nowazek has been living under house arrest with his sister in Wolf Creek.

On Dec. 10, Nowazek was spotted using a cell phone.

He has been charged with breaching his probation order, but is not under arrest.

Meanwhile, following a letter to the editor published in the Star last week, Nowazek’s case has been brought up in the legislature twice by Liberal MLA Don Inverarity.

“This is an individual who has been described as a pedophile with a high risk to reoffend,” Inverarity said.

“He quietly moved into a Whitehorse neighbourhood and residents became rightfully concerned when they found out about it.

“What is the minister doing to address their concerns?”

Earlier this week, Justice Minister Marian Horne responded that the government is following its notification protocol, which assigns a review board to decide whether to notify residents of an offender’s return to the community.

Nowazek’s new neighbours were not informed, Inverarity pointed out.

“The notification did not happen. This case obviously fell through the cracks,” he said. “What is the minister going to do to fix it?”

“As I mentioned yesterday, any individual can make a complaint to the RCMP to initiate the board hearing a matter on any of these issues,” Horne responded.