Search on for Bangor sex offender

BANGOR — A warrant of arrest was issued Thursday for a man involved in one of the area’s most notorious child sex rings in the 1980s.

Richard Gagne, 49, who was convicted in 1988 of several counts of gross sexual misconduct and is described by his probation officer as a “dangerous sex offender,” has missed two scheduled meetings with his probation officer, according to officials.

Probation officer Sue Carey applied for an arrest warrant on Thursday afternoon.

Gagne was one of nine people convicted of participating in sex parties involving four children from 1981 to 1983 at a Center Street apartment in Bangor.

Carey said Gagne was sentenced in January 1989 to 12 years in prison and was released in October 1993. In December of 1996, he was accused of violating his probation by having contact with minor children and was sent back to prison for two years, according to probation records.

Carey said that since his Februrary 1998 release from prison on the violation of probation charge, Gagne violated his probation twice more by having contact with minor children.

He was taken back to court and sentenced to 30 days in jail and more conditions were added to his probation, including one that prohibited him from having contact with any adult who had minor children living in their home.

Carey said Gagne also violated that condition and he was sent back to jail for five months. He was released from Penobscot County Jail on May 15 this year and ordered to contact Carey on the first Tuesday after his release.

Carey said Gagne left a message on her answering machine when he was released but did not tell her how to get in touch with him. He no longer lives at the address he had before going back to jail, she said.

Carey said she has since been unable to locate Gagne and is very concerned that he be found.

He’s missed two weeks of scheduled probation meetings, she said, though she believes he is still in the area.

“He’s an untreated sex offender and is very dangerous,” she said.

Carey asked that anyone with information about Gagne’s whereabouts contact her at 941-4728 or call the Bangor Police Department at 947-7384.