Name-change sex abuser pleads guilty

A convicted child sex predator who changed his name before going on to abuse another victim is now facing a likely 15-year prison sentence.

Ryan Knight, 44, pleaded guilty Monday morning to sexual interference and making child sexual abuse and exploitation material.

Knight remains in custody and is expected to be sentenced in the fall, when Crown and defence lawyers will jointly recommend the repeat offender serve 15 years in prison.

Knight, who was born Ryan Gabourie, has been in custody since last July when he was charged with sex crimes involving a 13-year-old boy.

In 2005, Gabourie was sentenced to seven years in prison for sexually molesting five young boys after he entered their homes through unlocked windows and doors.

Gabourie served his entire sentence in custody and another three years after he repeatedly breached conditions of his release, including contacting a known sex offender.

Gabourie legally changed his name to Ryan James Knight in 2021.

Reporting by the Free Press of Knight’s name change and arrest last year prompted the province to speed up implementation of Bill 23, the Change of Name Amendment Act, which requires that a criminal record check be completed when a name change application is submitted.

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court Monday, Knight came to the attention of Winnipeg police March 2, 2025, when officers spotted him driving a truck similar to one that had been reported stolen.

Knight ignored signals to pull over and tried to elude police before exiting the truck outside his Atlantic Avenue home, where he was arrested. In the passenger seat of the truck was a 13-year-old boy he would later be charged with abusing.

Knight’s truck wasn’t stolen, but police ticketed him for driving without a licence and other driving offences before releasing him from custody that same evening.

Police interviewed the boy and after learning he had no familial relationship with Knight launched a separate investigation that later revealed Knight had been sexually abusing him.

The boy told police he met Knight after his parents hired him to renovate their basement a year earlier. The boy said Knight hired him for small jobs around his house, took him to movies and let him sleep at his house.

Police reviewed the boy’s cellphone and found messages from Knight “scolding” him for refusing to go to his house and complete his “tasks,” says the agreed statement of facts.

Police drove the boy home and urged his parents to cut off all contact with Knight, to which they agreed. The parents later reported Knight called their house over a dozen times, the boy’s stepmother’s cellphone 18 times and repeatedly tried to communicate with the boy through social media using several aliases.

Police charged Knight with harassment and secured a warrant for his arrest on March 11, 2025. He was arrested a week later in Calgary.

A cellphone seized from Knight contained more than two dozen pictures of the victim involving nudity.

Investigators reinterviewed the boy, who told them Knight had repeatedly sexually assaulted him during visits to the man’s home.

“The victim told police that he did not disclose anything to CFS when they asked him about the accused as he does not trust CFS and was worried they would tell his dad,” says the agreed statement of facts. “He told police that he was embarrassed to talk about the accused and that the accused had warned him not to tell anyone.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca