500 dangerous criminals have breached orders
Correction figures reveal charges faced by ex-cons
More than 500 dangerous criminals — subject to orders enabling authorities to strictly monitor them amid fears of reoffending within the community — have breached their conditions in the past six years.
New figures from the Department of Corrections released under the Official Information Act reveal that of the criminals subject to extended supervision orders (ESOs) since 2014, 510 have been charged with breaching their conditions.
ESOs are used to both monitor and manage the long-term risk posed by offenders who authorities believe are at high risk of reoffending.
If Corrections holds concerns over any offender it can apply to the courts for an order.
An order can be in place for up to 10 years at a time and conditions can be imposed specific to the offender to allow authorities to supervise them closely.
Corrections confirmed that this year alone 275 orders are in place and 89 offenders — just under a third — have breached their conditions.
From 2014 to 2018 between a quarter and a third of offenders under ESOs also breached conditions.
If someone breaches their order they may be charged in court and, if convicted, could be sentenced to up to two years’ imprisonment.
Corrections National Commissioner Rachel Leota said public safety and reducing reoffending were the department’s “primary goals”.
“An ESO is used to identify and monitor offenders in the community who post a real and ongoing risk of committing serious sexual and violent offending,” she said.
“Extended supervision is aimed at managing long-term risks posed by this offending in the community by monitoring a person’s activities or whereabouts over an extended period of time.”
Leota said anyone subject to an ESO was managed by Community Corrections in line with the conditions of their specific order.
Those conditions always included reporting regularly to a probation officer, constraints on their residence and work and restrictions on who they could contact including victims and people under 16.
“Corrections can apply to the Parole Board to request special conditions be imposed to an offender’s specific risks which can include electronic monitoring, restricting an offender’s whereabouts or particular activities or compulsory participation in programmes,” Leota said.
The Herald has reported regularly on offenders who have breached ESOs.
In August it could finally be revealed that notorious sex offender Ronald Van Der Plaat, 84, had been before the courts since late 2017 for repeat breaches of his order.
In 2000 Van Der Plaat was jailed for 14 years for subjecting his daughter Tanjas Darke to “bizarre and depraved” sexual abuse between 1983 and 1992.
After his release from prison in 2016 — after being earlier paroled and recalled for breaching his conditions — the Department of Corrections granted an extended supervision order with full-time GPS monitoring and a ban on contact with anyone under 16.
However, in June 2017 he was charged with breaching that order after he was allegedly seen by several people speaking to a young girl in the Te Atatu street where he lived.
He was eventually charged with four breaches but after more than two years before the courts Judge Noel Sainsbury deemed Van Der Plaat unfit to enter a plea or stand trial due to his worsening dementia.
The original breached charge was stayed and Van Der Plaat was released from the court system.
One of the most high-profile ESO breaches was by Tony Robertson in 2014.
Months after he was released from prison for kidnapping and molesting a 5-yearold girl he raped and murdered North Shore woman Blessie Gotingco.
Robertson had been jailed in October 2006 for eight years after being found guilty of seven charges, including indecently assaulting the 5-year-old and attempting to abduct two other children.
On his release in December 2013, he breached his conditions twice in a few weeks and was deemed such a danger an ESO was granted for the full 10-year period.
Robertson was also subject to GPS monitoring when he hit Gotingco, 56, with his car before he took her to his home, where she was raped and then stabbed to death.