Man allegedly wandered through Winnipeg high school twice before grabbing student at St. Vital elementary

WARNING: This article contains details of child sexual assault.

A 28-year-old registered sex offender faces new charges for wandering the hallways of a Winnipeg high school before allegedly grabbing a student at another school last month.

Scott William George, 28, was arrested and charged with assault, forcible confinement and two counts of failing to comply with a prohibition involving children late last month.

The arrest happened after a man entered Darwin School on Nov. 27, hid in a bathroom and then allegedly grabbed a student who came out of another stall.

Winnipeg police have said the child escaped and was not physically hurt.

On Dec. 1, Louis Riel School Division reported two more incidents to police, a news release said Wednesday.

The first was discovered by staff reviewing surveillance video from a high school that was taken on Nov. 20.

A man entered the school after hours, wandered the premises and took a laptop from a vacant classroom, police were told.

He exited the building without being detected.

Staff reported the same man was in the high school again on Nov. 27, police said.

During school hours and while students were present, the man allegedly wandered the first and second floors until staff found him.

He was escorted from the premises, but the incident wasn't reported to police until Dec. 1.

Nobody was threatened or injured in either incident, police said.

Groped 6-year-old

George was rearrested at the Provincial Remand Centre, a pretrial detention facility in Winnipeg, on Tuesday.

He was charged with theft under $5,000 and two counts of failing to comply with a prohibition involving children. He remains in custody.

Court records show George has been a registered sex offender since he pleaded guilty in 2023 to sexual interference and was sentenced to two years for that crime.

In that case, George went to a movie theatre in the Polo Park area in July 2022, where he "randomly and bluntly" walked up to a six-year-old girl who was with her family, groped her and then fled, according to court recordings reviewed by CBC News.

As a registered sex offender, George was prohibited from having contact with children or being in spaces where they would typically be.

He breached those conditions twice earlier this year, a court heard in June.

In February, George was found in a bathroom at St. Vital Park. Police dropped him off at a homeless shelter, court heard.

In March, lawyers said a custodian at Dakota Collegiate saw George "walking back and forth in the hallways" half an hour before classes were scheduled to begin. School staff followed him to the gym and to the football field, where he was arrested.

In response to the child's assault at Darwin, the province asked every school division to undertake a safety review and send a report on their findings to the Department of Education by Dec. 25.