A convicted sex offender has been hit with handcuffs once again, less than two years after finishing a 15-year prison sentence.
Hassan Steven Jarrar, 41, was arrested Tuesday. Police allege that he met a girl online, threatened to post compromising photos of her on the Internet, then lured her to a west Toronto hotel where she was sexually assaulted.
His charges include sexual assault, sexual interference, extortion, access to child pornography, possess child pornography, make child pornography, luring a child and breaking a curfew that was imposed on him after he was released from prison in 2012.
In 1996, a 23-year-old Jarrar picked up a sex worker from a downtown Toronto street and took her to Cherry Beach where he raped her and left her in the cold for hours. Had her body temperature dropped one degree further before she was found, the case would have been a homicide, the prosecutor said upon Jarrar's conviction.
Justice John Hamilton was called a hero at the time for sentencing Jarrar to life in prison, telling the sex offender he was “a dangerous person and that some control must be kept on you for the rest of your life.”
But the Ontario Court of Appeal disagreed, deciding in 2002 that there was "no clear evidence" that Jarrar was so dangerous, adding, "while there continues to be concern about the appellant’s prospects for rehabilitation because he refuses to take treatment, he represents only a moderate risk for re-offending."
Jarrar's life sentence was reduced to 15 years, a sentence he served in full until his release in 2012.
Upon Jarrar's release from prison, Toronto police warned the public that he was at risk to re-offend. They also sought a special court order that placed him under 15 conditions, including that he abide by a curfew and notify police if he was entering into a relationship.
