While behind bars for an armed robbery, a Dunedin man sent a depraved letter to one of the country's most dangerous paedophiles, a court has heard.
Justin Philip Witchall, 25, was serving nearly three and a-half years at Otago Corrections Facility in April when he wrote a coded note to Glen Douglas - the first person in the country to be subject to a Public Protection Order.
The defendant's letter, containing graphic fantasies of child sex abuse, was addressed to Douglas' residence - a special facility beside Christchurch Men's Prison set up for offenders deemed too high risk to be in the community once released from jail.
The offensive material never made its way north as Witchall had written the key to the code on the back of the note.
According to court documents, the code used was known as "Scandinavian Runic", which used different shapes to correspond with the letters of the alphabet.