Man who Molested Boys in Newport Charged with Failing to Register as Sex Offender

A man convicted of molesting boys in Newport in the 1990s is facing new charges of failing to register as a sex offender for allegedly leaving his Warwick house and traveling to six states without notifying authorities.

Byron W. de Weldon, 45, was ordered held Friday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond after he returned to Rhode Island last week and was arrested by members of the U.S. Marshal’s Sex Offender and Registration and Notification Act Task Force, the U.S. Marshals and the Warwick Police Department.

According to court documents, de Weldon left his Warwick house on Sept. 19 and went to California, Florida, Maryland, Connecticut, Maine and Pennsylvania, which all have sex offender registry statutes.

de Weldon has “exhibited a pattern of sexually assaulting victims who are typically young males in the age range of 11- to 15-years-old,” according to a criminal affidavit filed by the U.S. Marshals as they sought an arrest warrant.

de Weldon, the son of notable Newport sculptor Felix de Weldon, has multiple convictions for sex crimes, beginning in 1995 when he pleaded guilty to assaulting a boy in Massachusetts. He also pleaded guilty to assaulting the same boy and two other boys in Newport that same month.

He received a 10-year suspended sentence and was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in California in 1997 for giving marijuana to a child, according to court records. He was tried as a probation violator in Rhode Island and was sentenced to probation.

Two years later, de Weldon was arrested for child molestation once again and was he was ordered to serve his previously-suspended sentence. In that case, he allegedly drugged and assaulted two boys where he lived in the carriage house at the Miramar estate in Newport.

In 2008, de Weldon was civilly committed in Massachusetts as a danger to the public and was eventually released on Dec. 18 of 2014.

He moved into his mother’s house in Warwick, not far from John Brown Francis Elementary School.

His presence in the community caught the attention of many concerned residents, including Rhode Island Rep. Joseph McNamara, who introduced legislation that increased the buffer zone around schools from 300 to 1,000 feet.

Court records show de Weldon was notified on Sept. 18 of the new law.

On Oct. 4, Warwick police interviewed his mother, who said that her son had not been living there for about a month. She said he had traveled to the aforementioned states and thought he was currently “down south.”

While police were interviewing his mother, de Weldon called her cell phone and spoke with police, telling officers that he had left the house when he was notified of the change in state law prohibiting him from living within 1,000 feet of a school.