Sex offender remains ‘undue risk’
A DUNEDIN sex offender who befriended single mothers to gain access to their children will be behind bars for at least another 22 months.
Peter William Pearson (50) was jailed for six years four months when he appeared in the Dunedin District Court last year on a range of sex charges, which included secretly filming naked men and possessing objectionable images of children involved in sex acts.
He came before the Parole Board last month but accepted from the hearing’s outset he was not ready for release.
Pearson was enrolled to do the Drug Treatment Programme and Kia Marama — sexoffender therapy — the latter of which will only begin in March 2020.
A psychiatrist’s report provided to the board indicated the prisoner did not have ‘‘a real depth of understanding of the effect of his abuse’’.
Panel convener Sir Ron Young noted Pearson had reportedly abused alcohol and drugs for many years.
‘‘We are not satisfied currently that he is anything other than an undue risk given the offending and the fact that he is currently untreated,’’ he said.
Pearson sexually abused two boys and a girl, gaining the trust of their mothers until he had the children alone.
The court heard at sentencing that between April and August 2016, he often had the victims together at his home in Maryhill where he played a game he dubbed ‘‘spoons’’. The loser of each round would have to remove an article of clothing, which eventually saw Pearson end up naked in bed with the children.
When Pearson was dealt with in court, the mother of one of the boys spoke of her son’s violent and sexualised behaviour since the ordeal.
‘‘I often worry about [my child’s] future and whether he will become a sexual offender,’’ she said.
Pearson was unmasked when text messages about masturbation were uncovered by one of the victim’s mothers on the boy’s phone.
A search of his house uncovered two devices used to covertly record people.
More than 130 objectionable images and videos were also discovered by officers.
Pearson had previous convictions for accessing such material and one for indecency in 1984.
He will next be seen by the Parole Board in September 2020.