A convicted child molester has been released from custody and is back living in Whitehorse, say RCMP.

David John Malcolm was arrested in January after an acquaintance of the man called the police to say Malcolm had threatened someone.

At the time, the 28-year-old man, a member of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation, was on strict probation. The terms included a curfew, a ban on drinking, an order that he not go anywhere near children and that he generally keep the peace.

Malcolm was convicted of sexually assaulting a young girl in 2005 and sentenced to two years in a federal penitentiary.

He has been detained at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre since the January arrest, but was released on Friday after the Crown prosecutor stayed the charges against him.

When Malcolm was originally charged with the sexual offence, all parties involved in his case - probation officer, lawyers from both sides, the doctor who did his psychological assessment and the judge - agreed the man needs to live in a highly supervised environment.

During the trial, his lawyer said Malcolm has the mentality of a child and the jail's psychologist reported that he likely suffers from a severe Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

The psychologist attributed much of Malcolm's behaviour to his disorder, including his inability to understand the consequences of his actions, or control his sexual urges.

In spite of the fact that Malcolm has been flagged as someone who is likely to reoffend - the psychological assessment defined him as a "heterosexual pedophile" - and has repeatedly shown he cannot control his behaviour, he walked away from the courthouse by himself on Friday.

Whitehorse has only one residence for men on probation, the Adult Resource Centre (ARC), run by the Salvation Army. The ARC has 16 beds, 11 of which are reserved for men referred from the Department of Justice.

There is nowhere for women on probation, and nothing in the communities.

The Yukon has two residences for adults with severe FASD, which together serve about a dozen people.

As Capt. Robert Sessford, who runs the ARC, pointed out today, people at both his facility and at the FASD-specific group homes are very cautious about mixing clients who have broken the law with those who have not because people with FASD are considered very vulnerable to abuse and manipulation.

The territory budgets for 10 FASD assessments a year. They are done through the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Society of Yukon.

Most of the assessments are referrals from the courts, meaning that most Yukoners who have an FASD are never properly diagnosed unless they break the law.