Child molester released
A “DEVIANT” sex offender who lured an eight-year-old girl into his cabin to molest her has been living in Townsville for more than a month after being released on a five-year supervision order.
Peter Anthony Barlow, 58, had been in prison since 2014 after he was convicted of taking a child for immoral purposes at the Cairns caravan park where he was living at the time, but was released in June this year to live in supervised accommodation in Townsville.
In June 2014, Barlow, who had consumed 16 litres of wine, approached an eight-year-old girl on her way to see her grandmother.
The little girl told him she was looking for a kitten she had seen.
Instead of helping her as he had offered, Barlow lured her to his cabin.
The girl asked to leave and tried opening the door, but Barlow pulled her back on to the bed before kissing her hand. He was interrupted by a groundskeeper who saw the girl standing next to the bed and crying.
“It is perhaps fortunate, particularly for the (girl), but also for what I fear you could have done, that the groundskeeper happened to intervene,” Judge Dean Morzone said during Barlow’s sentencing in 2015.
A psychologist deemed Barlow at high risk of reoffending sexually unless he was supervised. Barlow’s criminal history, according documents, dates the 1970s.
A few months before he was due to be released last year, Attorney-general Yvette D’ath applied for Barlow to be detained indefinitely or subjected to a supervision order under the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act.
Justice Helen Bowskill concluded, based on evidence including the assessment of three psychiatrists, that the risk Barlow posed could be adto court back to equately addressed supervision order.
According to court documents, Queensland Corrective Services identified an indigenous aged-care facility in Townsville with a vacancy, although an aged-care assessment would be required.
The psychiatrists agreed the accommodation was suitable.
Barlow was released on a five-year supervision order on June 25. As part of the order he is not allowed to have any contact with children under age 16, with a go within 100m of any school or childcare centre, or any public park, shopping centre or attend a caravan park.
Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston said the AttorneyGeneral was “absolutely correct” to have filed an application for Barlow to be kept behind bars indefinitely.
“A man that can do this – despite that this attempt was thwarted, that was more good luck than anything else for that little girl – is nobody anybody wants on the street,” she said.