IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY - The mayor of Cambridge Bay says community members are paying the price for the crimes of a convicted sex offender who is scheduled to be released from an Ontario prison at the end of the month.

"He's served his time, five years, which is way too little. He's free," Mayor Syd Glawson said. "But now the community is confined, the community is in jail."

Police are warning the public that convicted sex offender Desmond Kaosoni could return to his home community of Cambridge Bay after he is released from prison on April 29.

Kaosoni, 27, will finish serving a five-year sentence at the end of the month for four violent sexual assaults, an RCMP press release stated. The attacks happened in Cambridge Bay on Sept. 30, 2004.

"It is believed that Kaosoni will return to Cambridge Bay to reside," the release read.

Glawson said the prospect of his return is terrifying to community members.

"They're living behind locked doors and afraid to look out the windows for what they might see," he said. "That's not fair, that's not right."

If Kaosoni does return to the community, there is little the hamlet council can do about it, Glawson said. He said he does not believe the council has the legal authority to banish Kaosoni from the community.

"A lot of us may not welcome the idea, but actually, there's nothing we can legally do," he said.

Even if the community does take steps to banish Kaosoni, Glawson said that would just transfer the problem to another community.

"If we are successful in keeping him out of Cambridge Bay, should we go that route, then he's going to go somewhere else and the problem is just going to be moved around."

Glawson said he believes the Nunavut justice system failed when they sentenced Kaosoni.

"I think they failed miserably in this case and now we're stuck with a problem that we don't know how to solve," he said.

In 2004, Cambridge Bay hamlet council voted unanimously in favour of having the courts decide if and when Kaosoni could return to the community. At the time, Kaosoni, who was on probation, faced more sexual assault charges shortly after being approved for early release from Baffin Correctional Centre, where he had been serving time for attacks that occurred a year earlier.

As of press time, it was unclear whether hamlet council's 2004 letter was received by the Nunavut Department of Justice.

The department had already approved a similar process in Kimmirut, where a convicted sex offender required court permission to return to the community.

Kaosoni was again convicted on May 5, 2005 and served his most recent sentence at Warkworth Institution in Ontario.

The RCMP press release indicated that Kaosoni is still considered dangerous.

"RCMP believe this warning to be in the interest of the public as Kaosoni is considered a high risk to re-offend," the release said. "The public is encouraged to take precautionary measures at all times."

Cambridge Bay RCMP Sgt. Charlie Gauthier said the RCMP will be "taking precautionary measures," if Kaosoni does return.

"We don't have the conditions yet, but we're going to come out with some conditions for him upon his arrival," Iqaluit RCMP Sgt. Jimmy Akavak.