Winnipeg sex offender who flew under family’s radar by changing name gets 15 years for abusing child

WARNING: This article contains details of child sexual abuse.

A convicted sex offender who sexually abused a 13-year-old boy whose family didn’t know about the man’s criminal past because he’d changed his name has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Ryan James Knight pleaded guilty in July to sexual interference and making child sexual abuse and exploitation material from August 2024 to March 2025.

Court heard Wednesday the boy’s family had hired Knight, who was in his early 40s at the time, to renovate their basement. Knight then ended up hiring the child to do odd jobs around his own home down the street, where the repeated abuse happened.

Several years before, Knight had changed his last name from Gabourie. That meant that when the boy’s family tried to look into Knight, they didn’t find that he’d been convicted roughly two decades earlier of breaking into children’s homes and sexually assaulting them as their families slept.

“They were duped,” provincial court Judge Kael McKenzie said as he handed down Knight’s sentence, after a joint recommendation from lawyers.

“It’s not just one person that you hurt. It’s over and over and over again, and for a long time…. You’re just leaving a trail of trauma behind you, and for decades now.”

The abuse came to light after Knight was out driving in a truck with the boy after midnight in March 2025, and ended up being pulled over by police. When officers found Knight had no familial relationship with the boy, they started an investigation that eventually uncovered Knight had been repeatedly sexually abusing the child.

Undated pictures of Knight released by Manitoba Justice in January 2024. (Manitoba Justice)

The boy, who can’t be identified because of a publication ban, told police Knight would take him to the movies and let him sleep over at his house, and that he occasionally lent the boy a cellphone and let him play on his computer, an agreed statement of facts read by Crown attorney Katie Dojack said. 

Investigators later seized electronics from Knight, which revealed child sexual abuse images of the boy. That led to police notifying the boy’s parents that he’d been sexually assaulted and requesting to speak with him. The boy agreed but asked that his parents not be provided his video statement to watch.

The boy told police he didn’t initially disclose anything to Child and Family Services when they became involved because he didn’t trust them and “worried they would tell his dad,” the agreed facts said. 

“He told police that he was embarrassed to talk about the accused and that the accused had warned him not to tell anyone.”

During the investigation, the boy also told police Knight used to have another boy “hanging out with him.” That child was later confirmed to be 14.

That boy’s mother told police she’d known Knight for nine years, and her son occasionally slept over at his home. However, she cut off contact when her family members raised concerns and she noticed the boy was “behaving differently.”

While police initially said Knight was charged with sexually abusing two teens, court records show other charges against him were stayed.

Light in boy’s eyes ‘replaced by anger’

The father of the boy whose son Knight was convicted of abusing said the boy, “who once openly showed his love for his family, has changed.”

“Since what happened to him, he has often expressed anger toward us, and the light in his eyes seems to have been replaced by anger,” the father wrote in a victim impact statement Dojack read.

“We hope that he will regain that spark, but we do not know whether he will.”

He said while he searched Knight’s name online before hiring him, he only found one complaint about a job he’d done.

“I believe his change of last name prevented me from discovering that history,” the father said. 

The boy’s grandmother said she watched her grandson change from “a happy-go-lucky child into a very angry and sullen child.”

“I watched the sparkly twinkle in his eyes disappear,” she wrote in her victim impact statement. “He didn’t believe we could help him, because Ryan had convinced him that his family didn’t care about him and wouldn’t believe him.”

Prosecutor Dojack said sexual victimization can be especially shameful for boys “because of social expectations that males are supposed to appear tough.”

“Embarrassment, humiliation and homophobia form a particularly toxic and stigmatizing combination for male child victims,” she said. “I think that is certainly something to be considered here.”

Knight’s lawyer, Theodore Mariash, told court his client’s childhood was also marked by “horrific abuse.”

When given the chance to speak for himself, Knight apologized for the harm he caused to people sitting in the courtroom gallery and for taking away their right to know about his past.

“I can’t even imagine what it’s like to learn who you had sitting at your dinner table,” he said from the prisoner’s box. “And I’m really sorry for that. No one deserved anything I have done.”

Court heard Knight has a little over 13 years left on his sentence, with enhanced credit for time served. He’s also subject to a list of conditions, including not contacting either of the children mentioned in the agreed facts.

If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can look for crisis lines and local services via the Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada database. ​​