PORTLAND – A notorious former prison inmate who once described himself as a “ticking time bomb” is back behind bars after being arrested in Portland on a misdemeanor charge of possessing burglary tools.

Police say 40-year-old Norman Dickinson was arrested Saturday night and is being held without bail at the Cumberland County Jail on a probation hold.

Since age 12, Dickinson has spent much of his life in state institutions. He pleaded guilty in 1989 to threatening three women with a realistic-looking toy gun, kidnapping a woman and stealing the car of another woman.

Dickinson has been released numerous times in recent years, only to be sent back to jail or prison for violating his probation.