Serial sex offender pleads not guilty to latest charges

A serial sex offender has pleaded not guilty to the latest charges he faces.

Donald Duane Bartlett, 50, appeared in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax Thursday morning viavideolinkfrom jail.

Bartlett was charged in January with 12 counts of sexual assault and 12 counts of sexual interference that are alleged to have occurred between 1986 and 1992 in Dartmouth, N.S.

He was denied bail during an appearance in provincial court last month. He's elected trial by judge alone in Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Lawyers will meet with a judge later this month to work out details of the trial.

Bartlett has a criminal record going back 29 years involving sexual assaults of children ranging in age from babies to 11-year-olds.

In August 2018, Halifax Regional Police issued a warning about Bartlett, who was being released from prison at that time. The warning said Bartlett was a high risk to reoffend.

Parole board documents said Bartlett's last conviction in 2015 involved his use of an internet chat line to engage in a conversation with another man where the two plotted to sexually assault children. The offences occurred in Alberta in 2012.