Dangerous offender had police record in Miramichi

March 20, 2009

A former Miramichi man who said he victimized over 50 boys was known to police in the city, says a spokesman for the Miramichi Police Force (MPF).

In 2005 Christopher Robin Karasek pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assaults involving boys from Alberta and earlier this week a judge in Edmonton declared him a dangerous offender after hearing he told police he victimized over 50 boys, most of them in New Brunswick.

Supt. Randy Hansen said Wednesday the only information he had about the admission was what he had heard through the media.

Edmonton police never contacted authorities here to tell them about Karasek's confession, but Hansen said he didn't know why without knowing the specifics of the admission.

"It depends on how specific the information was."

Hansen said he did find a record of the MPF assisting police in Edmonton as they tried to have Karasek declared a dangerous offender in 2006.

But the Edmonton police didn't notify them of Karasek's admission at that time, although Hansen repeated he didn't know what information was available in Edmonton.

"The information they had may not have been specific enough for them to even identify which agency to contact."

The interview with Edmonton police happened in February 2005 and he pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault that August.

Hansen said the next step for local police is to find out what information Edmonton police have about Karasek's statement.

"We'll see in fact if the statement was made and if there were any other details provided by Mr. Karasek.

"If they have any details that would help us or would lead us to believe there were any crimes committed in our area we will certainly be investigating thoroughly."

Agencies across the country do share information and they have had requests in the past for information about who resided in Miramichi, he said.

"It's not uncommon for agencies to do a query on a person and find out that another police force had dealings with them."

Hansen said one of the force's detectives was trying to get in touch with the Edmonton sex crimes unit to find out more information about Karasek's statement to them.

"If there is anything within that information that would lead them to believe there were any offences occurred here they would have contacted us, I suspect."

Karasek did plead guilty to two charges of invitation to sexual touching and committing an indecent act related to incidents that occurred in Miramichi in 1996 and 1997. Police say he was a suspect in other sexual assaults but no charges were laid.

Speaking on behalf of Victim Services, Public Safety representative Lisa Harrity said Victim Services may help people in situations like this, but because of privacy regulations, the police don't notify them about potential cases.

"Victims have to report the event to police, and after police validate the occurrence of a crime, victims can then call us and access our services."

Victim Services would need police validation that an incident occurred before offering service, she said.

"If anybody who was allegedly victimized by this person, he should be reported to the police."

Hansen said anyone with information about a crime should come forward to the police.

"If there are any potential witnesses to any crime out there, involving this individual or any other individual, we certainly encourage them to contact us and provide us the information."