Police have arrested a convicted sex offender who is now accused of spitting into the face of a five-year-old boy whose father had refused to give the suspect a cigarette.

A family leaving a restaurant on North Park Avenue Thursday night say they were approached by 59-year-old Melvin White who asked the 26-year-old father of the boy for a cigarette.

When the father told White he was already smoking his last cigarette, White allegedly spit on his son’s face then walked away.

Police found arrested White as he was walking along West Market Street.

According to the police report, jail officials told officers that White has a contagious disease. The report did not identify the disease.

White, who gives a Cincinnati address, has been booked into the county jail 74 times since 1991.

In 2015, White was sentenced to 9 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender after being convicted of importuning.

In 2018, he was sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison for failing to tell authorities after moving to a new address.  Sex offenders are required to notify their local sheriff when they change addresses.