Sex offender who changed name sent back to prison – Winnipeg Free Press | #childpredator | #kidsaftey | #childsaftey

The father of a boy repeatedly abused by convicted sex predator Ryan Knight said he believes his son would have been kept safe had there been a law in place preventing sex offenders from legally changing their name.

The man hired Knight to renovate his basement after running into him at a home improvement store, not knowing Knight had been convicted years earlier under a different name of sex crimes against children.

That decision in 2024 paved the way for Knight’s introduction to the man’s then 13-year-old son, who Knight went on to repeatedly sexually abuse during visits to Knight’s nearby home.

“I believe him changing his last name prevented me from discovering his past history,” the man said in a victim impact statement read out in court Wednesday.

“When I searched him before hiring him, I only found one complaint about a job under his current last name,” the man said. “If people without criminal records were not allowed to change their last name I believe I would have found out who he was and not have hired him.”

Reporting by the Free Press of Knight’s name change and arrest last year prompted the province to speed up implementation of Bill 23, the Change of Name Amendment Act, which requires that a criminal record check be completed when a name change application is submitted.

“My son, who once openly showed his love for his family, has changed,” the boy’s father said. “Since what happened to him he has often expressed anger toward us and the light in his eyes has been replaced by anger… We hope that he will regain that spark but we do not know if he ever will.”

Knight pleaded guilty in July to one charge each of sexual interference and making child sexual abuse material.

On Wednesday, following a joint recommendation by Crown and defence lawyers, provincial court Judge Kael McKenzie sentenced Knight to 15 years in prison.

McKenzie urged Knight to take “every opportunity” to participate in counselling “so that no one else has to live with the consequences of your… reprehensible conduct.”

Knight was born Ryan Gabourie and in 2005 was sentenced to seven years in prison for sexually molesting five young boys after he entered their homes through unlocked windows and doors.

Gabourie served his entire sentence in custody and an additional three years after he repeatedly breached conditions of his release, including contacting a known sex offender.

Gabourie legally changed his name to Ryan James Knight in 2021.

“The light in (my son’s) eyes has been replaced by anger… We hope that he will regain that spark but we do not know if he ever will.”

Knight’s crimes weren’t opportunistic, but “premeditated and predatory,” said Crown attorney Katie Dojack, referencing his most recent victim.

“This was not a one-time error in judgment or atypical behaviour,” Dojack said. “He made repeated choices to groom and sexually assault (the victim) and had plenty of time to consider his actions. Deliberate, conscious choices made over and over again.”

According to an agreed statement of facts read out in court, Knight came to the attention of Winnipeg police March 2, 2025, when officers spotted him driving a truck similar to one that had been reported stolen.

Knight ignored signals to pull over and tried to elude police before exiting the truck outside his Atlantic Avenue home, where he was arrested. In the passenger seat of the truck was a 13-year-old boy he would later be charged with abusing.

Knight’s truck wasn’t stolen, but police ticketed him for driving without a licence and other driving offences before releasing him from custody that same evening.

Police interviewed the boy and after learning he had no familial relationship with Knight launched a separate investigation that later revealed Knight had been sexually abusing him.

The boy told police he met Knight after his parents hired him to renovate their basement a year earlier. The boy said Knight hired him for small jobs around his house, took him to movies and let him sleep at his house.

“He made repeated choices to groom and sexually assault (the victim) and had plenty of time to consider his actions. Deliberate, conscious choices made over and over again.”

Police reviewed the boy’s cellphone and found messages from Knight “scolding” him for refusing to go to his house and complete his “tasks,” says the agreed statement of facts.

Police drove the boy home and urged his parents to cut off all contact with Knight, to which they agreed. The parents later reported Knight called their house more than a dozen times, the boy’s stepmother’s cellphone 18 times and repeatedly tried to communicate with the boy through social media using several aliases.

Police charged Knight with harassment and secured a warrant for his arrest on March 11, 2025. He was arrested a week later in Calgary.

A cellphone seized from Knight contained more than two dozen pictures of the victim involving nudity.

Investigators reinterviewed the boy, who told them Knight had repeatedly sexually assaulted him during visits to the man’s home.

“The victim told police that he did not disclose anything to CFS when they asked him about the accused as he does not trust CFS and was worried they would tell his dad,” says the agreed statement of facts. “He told police that he was embarrassed to talk about the accused and that the accused had warned him not to tell anyone.”

Sexual victimization can be particularly shameful for boys because of social expectations that males are supposed to be tough, Dojack said.

“Embarrassment, humiliation, and homophobia are a particularly toxic and stigmatizing combination for male child victims,” she said. “Despite all that we now know, there still seems to be this pervasive myth that when something bad happens, children will tell their parents and that’s just not the reality.”

Knight suffered “horrific abuse” as a child, “for which the scars are so palpable and obvious,” said defence lawyer Ted Mariash, who spent much of his 30-minute submission quoting Knight and his description of a childhood spent in foster care and years stained by neglect, sexual victimization and substance abuse.

Knight apologized to his victim and family “for the trauma I’ve inflicted.”

“There are people in courtroom who went out of their way to make me part of their lives and trust me and I have effectively thrown that in their face with my actions, my behaviour, my choice to hide who I was,” he said. “I can’t imagine what it’s like to learn who you have sitting at your dinner table and I’m really sorry for that.”

Knight received credit for time already served, reducing his remaining sentence to just over 13 years.

McKenzie ordered that Knight’s name be added to the national sex offender registry for the rest of his life and that he have no contact with his victim or his family as well as another teenage boy whose relationship with Knight was investigated by police but did not result in criminal charges.

dean.pritchard@winnipegfreepress.com

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.