Offender out under strict rules

A Dunedin student who wrote online about his depraved desires to rape babies has been released from prison.

But Benjamin Todd Whitcombe, 24, may not taste true freedom for several years.

The Parole Board released him a couple of weeks ago, but he remains under an extended supervision order for up to 10 years, with potentially arduous restrictions such as GPS monitoring.

Panel convener Judge Geoffrey Ellis said Whitcombe would be on parole at shared accommodation in Dunedin.

Most of the other residents would also be men who had graduated the Kia Marama sex-offender treatment programme.

Whitcombe was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment before the Dunedin District Court in September 2018 on four charges of exporting objectionable publications and one each of possessing, importing, making and possessing objectionable publications for supply.

He had been sentenced to home detention for similar offending three years earlier.

He came to the attention of Canadian authorities through his use of a messaging app, using the name “Philosophers Stone”, and later analysis of his phone found he uploaded four publications depicting the sexual exploitation of a child.

An investigation showed the crimes had taken place at a north Dunedin address and at his parents’ home, the court heard at sentencing.

When his house was raided, Whitcombe said he knew the childabuse material was “bad” and that he had used the app since he was 14 to communicate with people around the world.

Some conversations were so graphic court documents had to be redacted.