The Royal Canadian Mount Police say they arrested Matthew Francis O’Quinn early Monday morning at a residence in Stephenville Crossing, less than a day after they had appealed to the public for assistance in locating the 44-year-old Flat Bay man, who was declared a long-term offender five years ago.
The Bay St. George RCMP said O’Quinn, whom they had learned had come back to Newfoundland from Ontario, was unlawfully at large after he failed to comply with conditions of a long-term supervision order on Thursday.
At approximately 3 a.m. Monday, officers surrounded the residence in question and demanded Quinn exit the building. Negotiations, which lasted for approximately 45 minutes, ended with O’Quinn peacefully surrendering himself to police and taken into custody without incident.
The RCMP says it is contact with Correctional Service Canada, given O’Quinn’s violation of a long-term supervision order being served in Ontario.
O’Quinn was declared a long-term offender by Judge Wayne Gorman in February of 2015 as he awaited sentencing on convictions on 19 offences in a 2012 case involving a woman partner, offences that included assault, forcible confinement and uttering death threats.
She was the fifth woman with whom O’Quinn had an intimate relationship he had been convicted of assaulting.
In all, he had nearly 40 criminal convictions on his record.
Later in 2015, Gorman sentenced O’Quinn to nine years in prison, minus a credit of nearly four years for time he had already served in pre-sentencing custody.
The sentencing also called for O’Quinn to be subject to a 10-year supervision order after his release. It was his failure to comply with that order that led to his arrest in the hours before dawn Monday.
