Sex offender Lloyd McIntosh remains in a unit within the grounds of Christchurch Men’s Prison.
One of New Zealand’s worst sex offenders remains a high risk and will again be subject to extended supervision, more than 20 years after he was placed under strict monitoring conditions.
In 2004, Lloyd Alexander McIntosh became the first offender to be subject to a 10-year Extended Supervision Order (ESO).
A new order was imposed in 2015. Now, the High Court has granted another 10-year term from the second’s expiry in October last year.
McIntosh, 52, was convicted of raping a 6-year-old in 1989 and having unlawful sexual connection with a 2-year-old in 1993.
Shortly after he was released on parole for the latter offence, McIntosh assaulted a 25-year-old intellectually handicapped woman in his bedroom while a state-paid minder waited outside the door.
When the ESO was first granted, Corrections was going to house McIntosh in a rural town in Canterbury.
But the community railed against that plan, and it was decided he would instead be accommodated in a unit within the grounds of Christchurch Men’s Prison, where he remains.
McIntosh has been subject to several general and special conditions including 24-hour monitoring, supervision on approved outings and prescription medication such as antilibidinal medication, used to control a person’s sex drive.
While he has not sexually reoffended since 2003, he has six convictions for breaching his ESO.
The convictions led to prison sentences in 2013, 2019 and 2022.
The Department of Corrections made the latest application for an ESO on the grounds that McIntosh still had a pervasive pattern of serious sexual offending and remained at high risk of committing relevant sexual offences.
In a recently released High Court decision, a doctor who gave evidence to support the application said McIntosh provided relatively little information about his thoughts, emotions, sexual urges or arousal, or decisions leading to his offences.
That was consistent with his limited treatment progress in general and was considered likely to reflect a “somewhat rote-learned understanding of his offending, potentially to the best of his ability given his cognitive functioning”.
McIntosh appeared to have some level of understanding of the potential impacts of his sexual offending at a cognitive level when asked specific questions, the doctor noted.
However, his ability to apply and generalise understanding in a way that mitigated his risk or modified his behaviour had not yet been demonstrated.
Justice Geoffrey Venning said the doctor’s report confirmed McIntosh’s risk of sexual reoffending remained high.
In the decision, Justice Venning said McIntosh had demonstrated an intense drive to sexually offend and a clear predilection and proclivity for sexual offending, both historically within his pattern of sexual offending, and by way of periodic offence-paralleling behaviour while in the community, despite being subject to a high level of external risk management.
“While Mr McIntosh takes responsibility for his sexual offences, expresses remorse, and demonstrates at least a basic cognitive understanding of the impact of his offending on his victims, it is considered unlikely that this is present to a degree that would mitigate his risk and change his behaviour.”
Justice Venning considered whether McIntosh should be subject to an ESO of less than 10 years, given the length of time he had been subject to supervision and his age.
Again, he supported the doctor’s finding that there were no indications to suggest that McIntosh’s risk would reduce within the 10-year period based on his functioning to date.
Justice Venning noted that, given the length of time McIntosh had been subject to the order, a review of the 10-year order would be required within five years.
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently, he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.