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High-risk sex offender released from custody, expected to live in Winnipeg

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High-risk sex offender released from custody, expected to live in Winnipeg
The Manitoba Integrated High Risk Sex Offender Unit and Winnipeg police are warning women in Winnipeg about a high-risk sex offender expected to live in the city. – Aug 25, 2026

The Manitoba Integrated High Risk Sex Offender Unit and Winnipeg police are warning women in Winnipeg about a high-risk sex offender expected to live in the city.

James Joseph O’Kane, 35, was released from the Bowden Institution in Innisfail, Alta., on Monday. Although O’Kane participated in some treatment programming, he is still considered a high risk to reoffend in a sexual manner against women, the sex offender unit and Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) said in a news release Tuesday.

He was convicted of sexual assault causing bodily harm, forcible confinement and uttering threats in May 2021. O’Kane was sentenced to just under six years in prison.

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Those charges were laid in relation to an attack on a woman in October 2016.

Police said O’Kane dragged the woman down an alley. He then sexually assaulted, choked and threatened to kill the woman while holding a knife, according to the release.

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“There was some planning of the attack as O’Kane had a very brief interaction with the victim and watched her before arming himself with a knife and attacking her,” it continued.

“Substance use is implicated in O’Kane’s offences,” the release said, adding that the man was also convicted of failing to comply with a release order.

Upon his release from the Alberta institution, the 35-year-old is subject to conditions of parole and a lifetime weapons ban.

O’Kane is described as having brown hair and brown eyes, with a tattoo on his right forearm that says “LIFE.” He is approximately six feet tall and 266 pounds.

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