<\/a>child sex offender considered a high risk for re-offending, who Saint John and Halifax police both issued alerts about, has now been granted leave privileges.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHarvey Venus, 39, a designated dangerous offender, has a lengthy criminal history, including sexual assault, assault causing bodily harm, assault, and sexual interference involving a girl under the age of 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He inappropriately touched the victim and took photos of her, while reportedly using an alias due to his sexual offence history, according to Parole Board of Canada documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He’s serving a nine-month, 31-day sentence at a community correctional centre in Halifax for breaching an eight-year long-term supervision order just three months after being released to a community correctional centre in Saint John in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He failed to disclose he started dating a woman with a child, lied to her about his criminal history, and was spending time alone with the child, contrary to the terms of his long-term supervision order \u2014 an order imposed by a judge during sentencing to extend the length of time the Correctional Service of Canada supervises an offender in the community beyond the completion of their regular sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A lone board member reviewed Venus’s case earlier this month to consider recommendations from the Correctional Service of Canada regarding the special conditions related to his long-term supervision order. It was recommended that the requirement to live at a community correction centre be extended by 365 days and that leave privileges be authorized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The board member agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Board believes that, in the absence of a condition requiring you to reside at a [community-based facility], you will present an undue risk to society by committing, before the expiration of your sentence \u2026 an offence set out in Schedule 1” of the Criminal Code, which includes a number of offences involving children, or an offence related to a criminal organization, the decision states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Venus, a second-time federal offender, has been in the Halifax community for about nine months “without any negative incidents and appear[s] to be making progress,” he has “suffered from deviant sexual preferences for sexual contact with prepubescent and pubescent individuals” and a “fetishistic disorder towards female undergarments.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You are assessed to be a very high risk for further sexual offending and despite extensive psychological sex offender treatment you are ‘unable to apply the skills and knowledge.'”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
History of breaches<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Venus also has a history of breaches during community supervision and “a poor history of conditional release,” the decision notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His statutory release on his first federal sentence was revoked after he admitted to meeting a 14-year-old girl and purchasing rolling papers for her so she could smoke drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His statutory release in Halifax in February 2024 was revoked because he breached his conditions within a month. Officials found sexually explicit movies in his room, learned he failed to disclose a relationship with a female, and discovered he had accessed the internet via a cellphone, according to parole documents<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Venus was described at the time as “deceptive” and “conniving.” On April 18, 2024, he was released to a Halifax community correctional centre again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Has job, romantic relationship<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, Venus has been working, started a new “romantic relationship,” which he immediately disclosed to his parole officer, and has been making efforts to rebuild relationships with his family, according to the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has respected the community correctional centre’s rules and actively participates in his correctional plan, it says. He has a “good relationship” with staff and fellow residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been “a few incidents” of his electronic monitoring picking up him being in “exclusion areas,” but they were all investigated and “legitimate reasons for [his] lapse were verified.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leave privileges will help with reintegration<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having leave privileges now will allow Venus “an opportunity to reconnect with community and pro-social peers in a controlled manner so as not to jeopardize public safety,” the board member said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leave privileges will also give Venus “an opportunity to build credibility” with his case management team and assist his gradual reintegration into the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His reintegration potential is assessed as “medium,” according to the documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No details about the conditions of Venus’s leave privileges are provided, but the decision suggests they will be implemented “gradually and methodically.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He will continue to live at a halfway house for at least another year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Was abused as a child<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to parole documents, Venus was sexually and physically abused as a child. He left school in Grade 10 after his then-girlfriend became pregnant so he could get a job to support them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His criminal activity, which also includes breaking and entering with intent, theft under $5,000 and fraud, began at an early age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has displayed “significant difficulties” thinking of the consequences and antecedents of his behaviour and is “impulsive” in his offending, the documents state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Venus has completed the Sex Offender Primer Program, the Sex Offender High Intensity program, the Sex Offender Maintenance Program and the Community Maintenance Program \u2013 Sex Offender program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The authors of his program performance reports last year and in 2023 believe his risk factors are unlikely to change until he has demonstrated a “significant period of stability in the community.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His Criminal Index Score is rated as 21. “Research found that 30 [per cent] of men federal offenders in this category (range: 18-21) committed an offence within three years of release.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His long-term supervision order expires in December 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PHOTO…..Harvey Joseph Venus, 39, is living at a community correctional centre in Halifax. In 2022 he breached the conditions of his supervision order at a community correctional centre in Saint John. (Halifax Regional Police)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW BRUNSWICK. HIGH RISK SEX OFFENDER GRANTED LEAVE PRIVILEGES………HARVEY JOSEPH VENUS ,39 , HAS MULTIPLE CONVICTIONS,INCLUDING SEX CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN……… Feb 21, 2025 WARNING DISTURBING CONTENT. A child sex offender considered a high risk for re-offending, who Saint John and Halifax police both issued alerts about, has now been granted leave privileges. Harvey Venus, 39, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oct_exclude_from_cache":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,38,29,12],"tags":[147,337,336,319],"class_list":["post-1219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nsor","category-new-brunswick","category-nova-scotia","category-sanc","tag-halifax","tag-harvey-venus","tag-high-risk-sex-offender","tag-saint-john"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/480766565_1061940542633071_7272210517741008381_n.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","blog_images":{"medium":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/480766565_1061940542633071_7272210517741008381_n.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1","large":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/480766565_1061940542633071_7272210517741008381_n.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"ams_acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/480766565_1061940542633071_7272210517741008381_n.jpg?fit=780%2C439&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtalq-jF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1221,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions\/1221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynewsgroups.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}