Vancouver police have arrested a high-risk sex offender who became the subject of a Canada-wide arrest warrant after he went missing from his halfway house last week, just one day after he was granted statutory release.
Officers located Hayden McCorriston in downtown Vancouver on April 21, several days after he failed to return to his halfway house. He was last seen leaving the building on April 17 at approximately 10:25 a.m., police said in a press release.
The 30-year-old was arrested by officers after they received a tip from the public and he was subsequently returned to prison, where he remains.
Police said they believe McCorriston violated the conditions of his release and took “deliberate steps” to avoid being located.
McCorriston was convicted of sexually assaulting several women over a four-day period in Burnaby and Vancouver in 2022, and was handed a sentence of three years plus two months.
He was charged with five counts of sexual assault, break-and-enter, failure to comply with an undertaking, assaulting a peace officer, possession of property obtained by crime, mischief, robbery, indecent acts, assault, and assault by choking.
Vancouver police warned the community about his statutory release in an April 17 social media post, saying he posed “significant risk of harm to the community and is a high risk to commit further physical and sexual violence.”
“Although his sentence expires in 2026, Vancouver Police have been notified that McCorriston has obtained statutory release and will be living at a halfway house in Vancouver,” police wrote in the notice.
Statutory release is a conditional release mechanism in Canada that allows most federal offenders to be reintegrated into the community automatically after serving two-thirds of their prison term. Offenders are expected to report to a parole officer and adhere to all stipulated legal requirements.
Police said his conditions included abstaining from drugs and alcohol, staying away from licensed establishments, obeying a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, and reporting all intimate sexual and non-sexual relationships and friendships with females to his parole supervisor.
Statutory release is not granted to those serving life sentences or if they were convicted of an offence causing death or serious harm or the sexual assault of a child.
