Repeat sex offender Wayne Treat had to have a smartphone when he was released to the community last year after more than a quarter-century of incarceration.

The only problem was, Treat, 69, whose sexual assault convictions date back to the 1970s, was prohibited by the Department of Adult Probation from possessing one.

Treat had been released to a transitional housing program in February 2018, after serving 25 years of a 35-year prison sentence for kidnapping and raping a pregnant woman in front of two young children at the Connecticut College Arboretum.

Within months, his desire to have a device that put pornography and other forbidden content at his fingertips landed him back in prison, where he learned this week that he would be residing for another six years.

In September 2018, probation officers conducting a field visit to the Project MORE transitional housing unit in New Haven, where Treat had been living, saw him with the phone.

Treat had used the phone to search for pornography, bondage and rape pages, enter chat rooms and dating sites and to indulge his curiosity about a new attraction to minors that he said he developed while in prison. Some of his searches included "little girls bathing suits," "one piece swimsuits for girls," "girls clothing" and "cute little teen porn," according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

He was discharged from sex offender treatment, charged with a violation of probation and returned to prison, where he remained while lawyers and a judge discussed his case in New London Superior Court.

On Thursday, Treat stood before Judge Hillary B. Strackbein and admitted he had violated the terms of his probation. She sentenced him to an additional six years in prison.

He could have fought the charge at a hearing, but his attorney, Tyler Edwards, said it would have been "an uphill battle." Edwards said Treat has a lot of medical issues and that eventually, "He wants to get back in the community and start over."

A smartphone will not likely be part of that new start.

Prosecutor Theresa Anne Ferryman, noting the "horrific" facts of the case for which Treat was on probation, said he would be placed back on sex offender probation following his release, with all the same conditions.

On October 23, 1992, Treat sexually assaulted a young mother, several months pregnant, who was walking in the Connecticut College Arboretum with her 2-year-old daughter and 2-year-old niece, according to court documents and stories in The Day archives. Treat grabbed the daughter by the throat and said he would kill her if anybody screamed. He dragged the woman and children into the woods and made the two children sit on a tree while he sexually assaulted the woman. He threatened to kill the children if the woman didn't comply. Afterward, he attempted to strangle the woman with a rope, but she fought him off. He fled when she screamed for help.

Judge Strackbein said Treat still has years of incarceration hanging over his head.

"The original incarceration seems like a long time ago, but it's not a long time to the victims. Your victims are permanently scarred," the judge said.

Judge Joseph J. Purtill had called him an evil person when he sentenced Treat in 1993 to 50 years, suspended after 35 years served, followed by five years probation, for the Connecticut College crimes. It was the latest in a long string of violent sex crimes.

In 1973, Treat was convicted of three sexual assaults in Waterford and Montville.

In 1979, Rhode Island police charged him with dragging a woman out of her disabled car at knifepoint. The woman fought him off and was uninjured, according to a news story.

In 1982, he was convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman while working as a cab driver. According to a news article, Treat picked up the woman at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, drove her to a secluded area off Greenhaven Road in Pawcatuck and threatened her with a knife before raping her. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for that crime.

Following his release, he started operating a prostitution ring and was charged in 1991 with promoting prostitution. He had scanned police arrest logs for the names of women who had been charged with prostitution and started a business called Fantasy Dating Service, according to a news story.

k.florin@theday.com