Serial rapist hesitant about treatment in prison
Serial rapist Joseph Thompson remains untreated for his offending and is ‘‘anxious’’ prisoners might talk if he was to attend a child sex offender treatment programme, according to a Parole Board decision.
Thompson is considered one of New Zealand’s worst serial rapists and confessed to assaulting as many as 49 young women in South Auckland in the 1980s and 1990s.
In 2000, he was sentenced to preventive detention on more than 100 charges of sexual violence. Last month, Thompson appeared before the Parole Board and chairman Sir Ron Young.
While Thompson did not seek parole at the hearing, Young was satisfied he remained an undue risk. Thompson’s offending involved a ‘‘very worrying’’ series of highly planned sexual assaults with at times extreme and certainly extensive physical violence to the victims, the decision said.
Thompson was seen in June where there was a possibility of him attending the child sex offender treatment programme.
However, he remains untreated and was recommended to take the first step of the programme.
At the February hearing, Thompson said he was worried he might not be able to express himself in a group.
‘‘He said he was anxious prisoners might later talk about his contributions in a group setting and so he was therefore concerned about undertaking the programme,’’ the decision said.
The board took time explaining what the child sex offender programme involved and the significance of it for offenders such as Thompson.
Thompson was encouraged to participate in the programme as a first rehabilitative step.
He told the board he was motivated and had also undertaken some self-control work by giving up cigarettes and alcohol.
The decision said Thompson’s conduct in prison had been ‘‘mostly good’’ and he was a reliable worker in the kitchen. He also undertakes weekly study.
Thompson will next be seen before the end of January 2023.