An 18-year-old convicted child sex offender alleged to have lurked in the backyard of a house occupied by a mother and her five-year-old daughter has been sent to an Auckland youth justice facility. He also lost a battle for name suppression so Hawke's Bay Today can reveal he is Mataroa Barton,who yesterday in the Napier District Court wore a black puffer jacket and his hair in a ponytail. Last year he was sentenced in the Pukekohe District Court to two years of 24-hour supervision having been convicted on numerous charges of sexual acts with children under the age of 12. An inquiry has been launched by the Ministry of Social Development into how he was able to jump over the fence to his neighbour's property eight times without his two "trackers" knowing. While that is being done he has been remanded in custody, without plea on the charge of breaching his supervision order, to a residential youth justice facility. Barton's lawyer Richard Stone argued for him to be bailed to a motel he had been staying in since being confronted by the mother and police being called. He said his client had not jumped the fence to peer in the five-year-old's window but to pick up cigarette butts as he wasn't allowed to smoke in the house he was staying at. "It was a concerned mother, which is understandable, but it didn't go any further than that," Mr Stone said. Sergeant Allan Potter said police were unaware Barton had been transferred to Napier. Judge Geoff Rea refused to grant name suppression despite Barton's fears he would become a target in the community, saying it was in the public's interest. Barton's next court appearance will be on May 23 in Napier.
