Texas man arrested in Barry on parole violation warrant, failure to register as sex offender

BARRY, Ill. — A Texas man wanted on a parole violation warrant was arrested Sunday in Barry.

The Pike County Sheriff’s Department received a call at 6:34 p.m. June 12 about a suspicious person in Barry. The caller said her daughter and her daughter’s friends were walking around Barry when an older male subject riding a bicycle approached the juveniles and spoke to them.  

After an investigation, Robert Wayne Niffen, 62, of Houston was arrested on a Texas Department of Criminal Justice parole violation warrant. Niffen’s charges in Texas were for aggravated rape and escape from a penal institution. He was listed as a violent sex offender absconder. 

Niffen was further charged with obstructing justice for initially providing a false name and failure to register as a sex offender.  

A story by KHOU-TV in Houston from 2011, which detailed Niffen’s arrest when he was employed as a carnival employee at a county fair in Santa Fe, Texas, noted he previously had been in prison serving a 57-year sentence for aggravated sexual assault. 

Niffen’s bond in Pike County, Ill., was set at $150,000. His parole violation warrant has a no bond.