SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Justice Louise Charbonneau will hear final arguments on Wednesday in the final stages of the Crown's application to have a 48-year-old convicted pedophile sentenced as a dangerous offender for sexually assaulting two Hay River boys in 2006.

Melanson currently has 56 convictions on his criminal record for offences across Canada, including eight sexual offences. -

John Murray Melanson pleaded guilty on Feb. 8, 2010, to sexually assaulting the two boys, possession of child pornography and breaking his probation conditions. Melanson, who lived in Hay River in 2006 and 2007, was arrested on Sept. 25, 2008, by two Hay River RCMP officers after being sentenced on unrelated matters in a Toronto courthouse, which didn't involve a jail sentence.

A dangerous offender designation would impose an indeterminate jail sentence until the offender is no longer considered a risk to re-offend.

Final arguments from Crown prosecutor Shannon Smallwood and defence lawyers Tracy Bock and Thomas Boyd are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. on April 27 in the Supreme Court of the NWT.

Originally from Saint John, N.B., Melanson currently has 56 convictions on his criminal record for offences across Canada, including eight sexual offences.

In February, the Crown began its case by calling Scott Woodside, a Toronto-based psychiatrist who spent four days in the spring of 2010 interviewing Melanson, and showed an RCMP interview with Melanson while he was in custody. In his 60-page assessment, Woodside described Melanson as being a high risk to commit another sexual offence.

Last week, Smallwood continued presenting evidence by calling David Chapman, the associate district director for Corrections Canada, who testified on April 18 about the processes for assessing prisoners as high risk as well as some of the monitoring techniques for offenders released back into society.

Smallwood closed the Crown's evidence submissions on April 19 by showing a video of a social worker's interview with the two Hay River child victims in February 2007. In the recording, both children talk about taking baths at "Fester's" residence - Melanson's nickname in Hay River - and how Melanson would touch their "private parts." One of the children told the social worker how Melanson made him "scared inside" his body and how he made his "heart break" from the assaults. The other child said it made him "feel sad" when Fester touched him in the bath.

Melanson, wearing a bright orange prisoner's shirt and grey sweatpants, was fixated on the television screen throughout much of the video, estimated to be around 45 minutes in length.

Bock and Boyd decided not to offer any evidence or have Melanson testify at the hearing.

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