Dunedin sex offender breaches court order within minutes of sentencing by taking detour

Joshua Tucker, 33, was jailed for more than four years for sexually abusing a teenage girl. Photo / ODT

A sex offender breached an order within minutes of his sentencing, a court has heard.

Joshua Frederick Tucker, 33, appeared in the Dunedin District Court last week where he was sentenced to four months' community detention and 12 months' intensive supervision for two breaches of parole.

The release conditions which extended beyond his parole - designed to allow a safe, monitored transition into the community - end tomorrow but despite their imminent lapse, the defendant still managed to breach them immediately after the sentencing.

Tucker was banned from entering Dunedin, so after the hearing he was required to leave the city for his Taieri Beach home without detour.

The GPS bracelet he was wearing showed that did not happen.

The court heard yesterday that Tucker, travelling with his mother, stopped at a friend's house on the way home to pick up a car.

Defence counsel Pete Tuala stressed the diversion to the address was only brief and argued it was not a deliberate breach.

Corrections' Jeremy Burdett said Tucker had been repeatedly informed of the restrictions concerning his movements.

It was the third such breach, he told the court.

The first two, which occurred in September, were the result of Tucker accessing social media to update his Facebook page, and the following day when he went to work on a fishing boat without the permission of Probation.

Judge Jonathan Krebs yesterday added a month to the defendant's community detention sentence, bringing it to five months.

In March 2015, Tucker was jailed for four years three months on two charges of unlawful sexual connection with a 13-year-old girl.

Over five months, during which he posed as a 16-year-old, the pair exchanged 16,000 messages.

Tucker, who knew the girl was underage, directed the conversations towards sex even when the victim made it clear she did not want that and pursued her until she gave in.

The breaches

March 2015: Joshua Tucker jailed for four years three months.

September 2019: Twice breaches parole in as many days by using social media and taking a job on a fishing boat without informing Probation.

October 22, 2019: Sentenced on the two breaches and informed parole conditions still applied. Remained in Dunedin rather than travelling straight to Taieri Beach home.

October 29, 2019: Tucker gets an extra month of community detention added to his sentence.