East-end residents seek protection from sex offender

(Update)

Developing news regarding a sex offender who police warned the public about last week, when he was released from prison and took up residence near Gage Park.

Late this afternoon, we got word from police that Keith Constantin has moved from this Gage Park neighbourhood into another neighbourhood near Fruitland Road. Earlier today we spoke to parents and other caregivers in the park — many had been passing around a photo and were on hyper alert.

Constantin is about five nine and heavy set, he could now be clean shaven. But police are following him closely because he has reoffended many times over the years shortly after a release from prison.

It’s very rare for police to alert the public when a sex offender moves into the neighbourhood. In fact, according to the sex offender registry online database, this neighbourhood is already home to more than 200. But this case is different because of Constantin’s propensity to reoffend. Because of that, he has to abide by a rare, post-sentence judicial order to keep away from children and not consume intoxicants, among other restrictions, even though he served all his time and is not on parole. He didn’t get parole because of bad behaviour in jail. Those restrictions however, only last for a year or two.

Constantin did have a couple of former addresses a few blocks from here over the past ten years, according to court documents. But he did not appear to be living at those same addresses when we visited today.

Now, as we mentioned, he’s living near Fruitland Road. Police say public outcry is likely what convinced Constantin to move today — there was no legal way to force him out of the neighbourhood but an online petition to get him away from this child-centric neighbourhood gathered almost 15 hundred signatures by today.

Even though their hands were tied, city officials were looking for a way to intervene. The mayor’s chief of staff said she’d never seen so many calls come in so quickly on one issue — more than 200 since Saturday night.