Tag: New Zealand

New Zealand: Prison would be ‘utterly disastrous’ for man caught with child exploitation images, judge says

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Source: stuff.co.nz 12/9/21 A man who dumped a laptop on which he downloaded thousands of child exploitation images has avoided jail after a judge said it would not surprise him if the defendant “did not survive a sentence of imprisonment”. Jasper James Gallacher​ ____, 30, was sentenced to six months’ community detention, along with two years of intensive supervision, in the Christchurch District Court on Thursday. Read the full article  

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New Zealand: Ex-NZ First MP Darroch Ball, advocating for victims, blasts ‘out of touch’ Greens for opposing child sex offender list

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[newshub.co.nz – 3/17/21] Former NZ First MP Darroch Ball, who advocates on behalf of victims, has described the Greens as “out of touch” for opposing the registration of child sex offenders. Nearly 600 child sex offenders will be put back on the national register after MPs rushed through urgent, retrospective changes on Wednesday to the Child Protection (Child Sex Offender Government Agency Registration) Act 2016. The Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that the law was not clear enough when it came to people who committed an offence before it came…

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New Zealand: Man wins appeal to have name struck off Sex Offender Register

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[rnz.co.nz – 2/9/21] The man was sentenced to nine months home detention in early 2018 after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography in early 2016. At his 2018 sentencing, the Judge also made an order that he be placed on the Child Sex Offender Register, which was established using the Registration Act in late 2016. The man committed the offence prior to the Registration Act coming into force but was convicted and sentenced after that date. The man did not seek to appeal his nine-month home detention sentence but challenged…

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New Zealand considers striking down civil commitment: Human rights test case for post-sentence detention and restrictions

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[stuff.co.nz – 2/2/21] A public safety law potentially amounting to a life sentence, was double-punishment for past crimes, the Court of Appeal has been told. A rare “full bench” of five judges was hearing a test case on Tuesday about the rights of mostly sex offenders who had finished their sentences but were still subject to restrictions, including three detained on prison grounds indefinitely under public protection orders. But the case was also about the hundreds of people under extended supervision orders after their sentences because they were believed to…

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New Zealand: Sex offender on preventive detention comes round to ‘path to integration

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[stuff.co.nz – 12/1/20] A prisoner serving the harshest available sentence for sexual offending against children is “open to a graduated path of reintegration” and has been encouraged to get all the experience he can working outside of prison. The Parole Board saw Ivan James Wilson at Tongariro Prison last month. Wilson, 39, was given the open-ended jail term of preventive detention in Gisborne, in August 2010, for sex offences against a young male. … Wilson’s security classification was low, but was about to be reduced to minimum shortly after the…

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New Zealand: Public vilification a factor in Wellington academic sentencing

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[stuff.co.nz – 1/28/19] Convicted sex offender ______ likely received a lesser sentence because of the potential “vilification” he would face, a leading criminal lawyer says. John Miller, who was a former senior law lecturer at Victoria University and previous Wellingtonian of the Year, said the Sentencing Act 2002 set out mitigating and aggravating factors in sentencing offenders, and a number of those factors would have been taken into account. Appearing before Judge Stephen Harrop at Wellington District Court on Friday, ______ was sentenced to eight months of home detention for…

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NZ: Revamp sex laws says UK expert

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A former senior British policeman who broke up online paedophile rings involving up to 16,000 offenders says New Zealand must introduce a sex offenders register. The Government is debating whether to follow Britain, the United States, Canada, South Africa and Australia in introducing a central list of those who have been jailed for sexual offences, particularly against children. Full Article

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New Zealand: Another attempt to establish a sex offenders register

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The Police Minister says research has been done on how to establish a sex offenders register in New Zealand. Police and the Corrections Department are working on the proposal and legislation enabling a register could go to Parliament before the election. Police Minister Anne Tolley says they’ve had a look at problems that were identified when former ACT MP Deborah Coddington tried – and failed – to establish such a register a decade ago. Full Article

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