Authorities in Winnipeg are alerting women about a high-risk sex offender who is set to reside in the city following his release from prison on April 4.
Lonnie Kelsey Smith, 48, is the subject of a community notification from Winnipeg Police because he has been classified as being at high risk of committing further violent offences against adult women.
Winnipeg police have issued a community warning to Winnipeg-area women about the release of high-risk sex offender Lonnie Kelsey Smith. The 48-year-old is considered a danger to any adult woman, police said. Police handout photo
Smith was serving a sentence at Stony Mountain Institution, located 30 kilometres north of the city, after being convicted of impaired operation of a vehicle causing death and failure to comply with probation and recognizance orders, Winnipeg Police said.
Smith has an extensive criminal history with a range of convictions for sex-related offences, including sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon, multiple breaches of probation and conditions, as well as charges for assault and resisting arrest, police said.
“Although he participated in some treatment programming in the past, Smith is still considered high risk to re-offend in a sexual and/or sexually violent manner,” police said. “All adult females are at risk.”
The victims of Smith’s sexual assaults included both acquaintances and strangers, police said, noting that the violent incidents were intensified by his consumption of solvents and various drugs. The notice said Smith has a history of using physical force and, at times, weapons to achieve compliance from his victims.
Smith is being released under several conditions, including a lifetime weapons ban, police said.
Smith is described as a five-foot-seven and 224-pound indigenous man with black hair and brown eyes. He has a tattoo of a wolf on his right arm and a bear claw, feather, and cross on his left arm as well as numerous scars on both forearms.
Police said the advisory was released as a measure to allow members of the public “to take suitable measures to protect themselves,” not as an invitation to engage in “any form of vigilante activity.”
