CONTENT NOTICE: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault. Reader discretion is appreciated.
A serial sex offender who identifies as transgender has been released to a halfway house in Ontario after having been detained for part of his sentence at the Milton-Vanier Centre for Women. Patrick Pearsall, who also uses the names Tara Pearsall and Passion-Star Royale, was released after being convicted for preying on young girls online by impersonating a paramedic, which afforded him the opportunity to perform vaginal exams on unsuspecting victims.
A repeat offender, Pearsall has 33 convictions related to breach of parole, failure to appear and non-compliance under the Sex Offender Registry. He has repeatedly been classified by authorities as “highly likely” to reoffend, and most likely sexually, while never expressing remorse for his crimes.
Over the past two decades, Pearsall has been convicted on charges related to instances of sexual assault by deception, and nearly all of his victims are underage girls or young women.
Documents were first shared to X by Canadian women’s rights activist Heather Mason which revealed that the decision by the parole board to release Pearsall went into effect on December 20, 2023. A statement from the parole board notes that Pearsall presents a “high risk to reoffend violently or sexually within women’s correctional institutions.”
“Even within correctional institutions, you have demonstrated a pattern of problematic institutional adjustment, including a recent allegation of sexual assault against a prisoner at [redacted] institution which resulted in your transfer to another institution; despite the allegation, the Board notes you were not charged. You have also received misconducts for being verbally aggressive with correctional staff,” the report states.
The Board also emphasized that Pearsall’s intention to undergo “gender surgery” would not lessen his risk to women and girls.
“Without personal change, which you have shown resistance to (most especially in the area of sexual offending), your risk to women and girls remains largely unmitigated.”
The convicted sex offender first declared a transgender status in 2015 while in custody for the first time on charges of sexual assault. He began calling himself Tara, taking the name of his former wife — who, on one occasion, told the court she’d married the man when she was 17 and he was 40. “He told me he was a doctor and a priest.”
In 2018, Pearsall was handed a fixed ten-year sentence following conviction for two sexual assaults, and was placed on the Sex Offender Registry. Three years prior, he had begun declaring a female identity, and was therefore sent to serve his sentence at the Milton-Vanier Centre for Women.
According to The Star, Pearsall had admitted to cellmates and other individuals that he preferred being incarcerated in a women’s facility because it meant doing “easier time.” Pearsall, a convicted rapist, had not undergone genital surgery and retained his male anatomy when he was placed in the women’s correctional center.
Pearsall has been diagnosed with factitious disorder, a mental disorder defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual as involving the falsification of physical or psychological signs of symptoms. In previous decades, and in some cases, presently, Pearsall has claimed to be HIV positive, diabetic, and a sufferer of chronic leukemia.
A habitual liar, Pearsall has also claimed to be a member of the British royal family, as well as a member of the Hells Angels gang.
During interviews with an appointed forensic psychiatrist, Pearsall claimed to have identified as a female from the age of 5, stating that he wore clothing regarded as being for girls throughout his young childhood, and that he had been sexually abused by his father as a punishment for his actions.
“I was a girl trapped in a boy’s body,” Pearsall has said, according to a 108-page report by the psychiatrist.
In 2018, Canadian journalist Rosie DiManno described how Pearsall appeared in court the year prior facing charges of sexual assault against two women, one of whom was a teenager, while wearing “women’s clothing, wearing makeup, perhaps the ugliest woman I’ve ever seen.”
One of the victims, identified only by her initials, L.M. told the court how she had been invited to stay at the Pearsall home after fleeing an abusive boyfriend and befriending the sexual predator’s wife on social media. During that time she experienced a medical issue and began bleeding vaginally.
Pearsall told the woman he was a certified paramedic, and she agreed to allow him to examine her.
“He feels around inside and then he tells me I’m miscarrying.’’ She told the court that Pearsall gave her two options: either go to the hospital, or he could “f— the baby back into you.’’
However, Pearsall’s history of sexual predation extends back decades. He had previously been convicted in Halifax in 1999 and in London in 2000 on charges of sexually assaulting girls.
The 1999 conviction for sexual assault involved a 24 year-old homeless woman identified as A.B. While claiming to be both a gynecologist and a reverend, Pearsall inserted his fingers into her to ostensibly conduct an examination. At that point, he told the victim that the fetus needed to be “pushed back,” and he suggested that the two engage in intercourse.
In 2008, he sexually assaulted a 21-year-old woman, and in 2015, he abused a 17-year-old girl. In both instances, he had posed as medical professional trained to perform gynecological exams on pregnant women.
The 17 year-old victim was a vulnerable teen runaway living in a group home. In what has been a continuous pattern, Pearsall and his then-girlfriend invited the girl to stay at their home. Experiencing issues related to an early-term pregnancy, the victim consented to a medical exam when Pearsall told her he had training. She realized he had lied when he told her she was three months pregnant, as she had only met her boyfriend two months prior.
Another conviction in Nova Scotia was described in the same fashion: a 16 year-old girl, homeless and pregnant, was violated under the pretense of a medical exam, and again, Pearsall offered to have intercourse with the girl to prevent an alleged miscarriage.
Disturbingly, Pearsall has also targeted an intellectually disabled teen whom he began interacting with through Facebook in 2015. According to her parents, the girl functioned at the mental capacity of a 5 year-old. After discovering the messages of a sexual nature sent by Pearsall, the girl’s parents contacted authorities.
Since his declaration of a transgender identity in 2015, Pearsall has begun wearing a wig and taking female hormones. He has not undergone genital surgery, and despite this, was placed in Milton-Vanier Centre for Women among female inmates.
The forensic psychological assessment ordered by the court describes Pearsall as retaining a “substantial risk” of reoffending.
“He has claimed he is planning on going through with castration associated with his wish to have gender reassignment surgery. He has not however had this surgery as of yet. As a result, I must consider his current gender and hormonal status when considering risk management,” the court stated.
“This gentleman has been convicted of a number of sexually motivated sexual offenses. Although he presently appears to be compliant with medication to cause feminization, these effects can be reversed with oral or injectable androgens. Thus, in absence of castration, this gentleman’s risk of sexual reoffending remains substantial.”