Wrong place for sex offender

OPINION

Aterrible and familiar problem has played itself out in Lower Hutt, as it does in every community sooner or later: how to accommodate a paedophile in the world when he has completed his prison sentence.

A repeat child sex offender was placed in a house in Maungaraki on August 1, where he was monitored by GPS and, Corrections Minister Judith Collins said, ‘‘someone is with him 24 hours, 7 days a week’’.

After a community outcry, however, he was moved to prison grounds in Christchurch, the Corrections Department revealed yesterday.

Corrections National Commissioner Jeremy Lightfoot says he is open to learning ‘‘ways in which we can do this better for concerned communities’’ after the experience in Maungaraki.

Better communication will be a start. Although there will be a risk of inflaming panic, most people will feel more offended if they are never consulted at all about a neighbour with such a history.

Then Corrections must find a street with few or no children in it, and certainly none right next door. What is not justified in cases like these is vigilantism or extrajudicial punishment. Both local MP Trevor Mallard and a local business owner called for the man to be moved onto prison grounds, which Corrections has now agreed to temporarily.

‘‘Nobody wants this guy near them,’’ said the business owner.

That may be true, but putting him in a prison seems disconcertingly close to locking him up again – when he has not offended for more than a decade.

Few people can find sympathy for paedophiles, but some will inevitably need to live in the community.

Finding a place for them requires extreme levels of oversight and care. That wasn’t what happened in Maungaraki.