A registered sex offender from Dartmouth has been granted bail on charges of molesting two children.
Brandon William McNeil, 27, faces two counts each of sexual exploitation, sexual interference and sexual assault.
The offences are alleged to have been committed between Feb. 11 and Feb. 27.
McNeil was arrested two weeks ago, and the Crown consented to his release on $6,000 bail in Dartmouth provincial court last week.
Judge Rickcola Brinton ordered McNeil to live with his surety at an address on Gaspereau Avenue in Wolfville.
McNeil must unlock, and give his surety access to, his electronic devices and social media accounts.
He has to stay away from the area around Wolfville School and is prohibited from having contact or communication with anyone under the age of 16 and from attending parks, playgrounds, community centres and other places where children are likely to be present.
The judge also specified that McNeil have no contact with the alleged victims, whose identities are protected by a publication ban.
The charges will be back in court April 21.
McNeil comes from a well-known family. He’s the son of former Halifax Regional Police deputy chief Chris McNeil and the nephew of former premier Stephen McNeil.
In March 2014, a Dartmouth woman discovered Brandon McNeil had been having inappropriate communication with her 13-year-old son on Facebook for about two months. McNeil, who was 20 at the time, was arrested and charged with internet luring, making child pornography and making sexually explicit material available to a child.
He pleaded guilty to the luring charge and was sentenced in January 2015 to four months in jail, followed by 18 months’ probation. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years and provide a sample of his DNA for a national databank.
The court was told the correspondence between McNeil and the boy included discussion about them meeting for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts.
McNeil said he was ashamed of his actions and any harm he caused to the victim.
An assessment by a clinical psychologist found McNeil posed a moderate risk to commit further sexual offences. Dr. Brad Kelln said the young man was at “an important juncture in his development.”
“The current offence was the impulsive choice of an individual immersed in the world of internet pornography and likely does not represent a deliberate attempt to groom and physically assault an underage minor,” Kelln wrote in his report. “This is an opportunity for him to fully examine his sexual attitudes and choices and to better define himself in prosocial terms.”