Rapist in fight for outright freedom
A CONVICTED rapist maintains he’s innocent, says he was tortured in prison and believes a NSW law allowing an attempt to curtail his freedom is “disgraceful”.
Former actor and model Simon Monteiro, 53, who specialists say shows psychopathic behaviour, has objected to nearly all 53 conditions of a proposed interim supervision order the state of NSW wants in place to “ensure the safety of the community”.
“It’s disgraceful legislation,” he told the NSW Supreme Court of the High Risk Offenders Act this week.
Described as having a “possessive and intimidating” nature by the sentencing judge, Monteiro was in 2009 jailed for the January 2008 rape of his ex-girlfriend in Sydney.
His 12¼-year term, which expires on April 7, also included time for malicious damage and stealing. NSW is now seeking court approval to impose supervision conditions on Monteiro beyond his sentence.
A long-term order will be discussed over the next few months but the state wants Monteiro to abstain from alcohol and recreational drugs, submit to a nightly curfew, allow no unapproved people into his home overnight and to go only to locations on a preapproved schedule.
The 53-year-old said he hadn’t been subjected to such stringent conditions on parole, which he’s been on since December 2018.
He rejected a condition that he leave his name unchanged and avoid all aliases before revealing he’d tried unsuccessfully to change his driver’s licence to his birth name Simon Lowe.
The court heard Monteiro had given a third name to the helicopter flying school where he’s training.
That wasn’t to “hide from anyone” but was so he wouldn’t be found and harassed by media, he said.
Richard Parker, a senior psychologist with Corrective Services, told the court he believed Monteiro was a psychopath. Forensic psychiatrist Kerri Eagle judged Monteiro as displaying behaviour corresponding with psychopathy and narcissistic personality disorder. But Monteiro said it was “ridiculous to assume” he was a danger and submitted the word of prison officers or psychologists who interviewed him in prison couldn’t be trusted.
He said he was repeatedly called a “c---”, repeatedly relocated and put in cells covered in faeces, urine, blood and mould during his time in prison. “There is very clear evidence I was made to spend two or three months in near-freezing temperatures,” he said. “The United Nations describes that as torture.”
Justice Richard Cavanagh asked NSW to reconsider if all 53 conditions were needed and reserved his decision until early April.