Child sex offender wants end to monitoring

A convicted child sex offender who agrees he is still a risk to children says he is staying away from them and should not be monitored further.

In the High Court at Wellington yesterday Moana Patrick Rimene, 59, of Lower Hutt, became the first person to fight the extended supervision order law outright.

An order can result in parole-like conditions being imposed for up to 10 years. It can involve home detention for up to a year.

Christchurch paedophile Lloyd McIntosh contested the length of the order to be imposed on him. Two judges ordered the maximum sentence of 10 years. About 10 other offenders have consented to orders being made against them.

Rimene acknowledged he would be a risk near children but said he did not have any form of contact with them.

"I have had to totally, and with justification, isolate myself again, this time for the better. I can count my friends and family on one hand. Two are my monitors and most are my family. They are what keeps me safe."

He also said he could not give the court any guarantees. He told Justice Warwick Gendall that he could not change his past but he wanted a say in what happened in his future.

The Corrections Department has asked for Rimene to be placed under an extended supervision order for up to 10 years under a law introduced last year.

Rimene's lawyer, Tony Rickard-Simms, said the new law breached the Bill of Rights in effectively imposing a sentence retrospectively. It also breached international conventions which New Zealand had signed.

Corrections lawyer Ken Stone said the law was designed to protect children from people who were a real risk. Rimene's own evidence was that he considered himself a risk.

The Crown disputed that an extended supervision order was a sentence.

Justice Gendall said he hoped to give his decision within a week.

Rimene refused to be interviewed for an up-to-date psychological report. He said he had fulfilled the obligations of his sentence and parole.

He was convicted in 1977 of abducting and raping a nine or 10-year-old girl, and in 1992 was sentenced to 11 years and nine months for sexual violation and indecent assaults involving six girls. He was released in 2001 after completing a sex offenders' programme

Rimene is an invalid beneficiary with heart and breathing problems.

- NZPA