Sex offender who fled Canada arrested in rape case

SEATTLE – A high-risk sex offender who fled Canada for Seattle has been arrested in the rape of a 69-year-old woman, authorities said Monday.

Michael Sean Stanley, 49, made news reports in 2013 when he cut off an electronic-monitoring ankle bracelet and crossed the U.S. border unchallenged. He’s a U.S. citizen, and American authorities said they had no reason to arrest him. Canada decided not to ask for his extradition, and he registered in Seattle as a sex offender.

Stanley, formerly of Edmonton, had a criminal record in Canada that dated back 25 years. Before he fled, he had most recently served 32 months for luring two mentally challenged boys into an apartment, lighting a crack pipe, blowing smoke in their faces and then sexually assaulting them. Parole board documents also described a case in which Stanley broke into an elderly woman’s apartment while she was sleeping and sexually assaulted her.

The King County Sheriff’s Office said he was arrested last Friday morning after entering the woman’s home, in the Skyway neighbourhood south of Seattle, through a window. No weapons were used, but the victim sustained what the sheriff’s office described as minor injuries.

Prior to that, authorities said, Stanley had been meeting his requirements as registered sex offender, including checking in weekly as required and providing an accurate account of where he was staying each night.

Stanley, who is homeless, was scheduled to make an initial court appearance Monday at the Regional Justice Center in Kent, where he was expected to be represented by a public defender, said Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

Stanley ran into trouble soon after arriving in Seattle in fall 2013. He was arrested on misdemeanour charges of harassment and resisting arrest after he threatened someone who asked him to be quiet. He was sentenced to seven months in jail.