Extended supervision: More than 500 dangerous criminals breach court orders after prison release

More than 500 criminals have breached Extended Supervision Orders since 2014. Photo / Doug Sherring

More than 500 dangerous criminals subject to orders enabling authorities to strictly monitor them amid fears of reoffending within the community have breached their conditions in the last six years.

New figures from the Department of Corrections released under the Official Information Act reveal that of the criminals subject to Extended Supervision Orders since 2014, 510 have been charged with breaching their conditions.

ESOs are used to both monitor and manage the long-term risk posed by offenders who authorities believe are a high risk of reoffending.

If Corrections holds concerns over any offender they can apply to the courts for an order.

They can be in place for up to 10 years at a time and conditions can be imposed specific to the offender to allow authorities to closely supervise them.

Corrections confirmed that this year alone 275 orders are in place and 89 offenders - just under a third - have breached their conditions.

From 2014-2018 between a quarter and a third of offenders under ESOs also breached conditions.

• In 2014 there were 255 ESOs in place and 66 breaches.

• In 2015 there were 263 ESOs in place and 77 breaches.

• In 2016 there were 271 ESOs in place and 67 breaches.

• In 2017 there were 285 ESOs in place and 98 breaches.

• In 2018 there were 291 ESOs in place and 113 breaches.

If someone breaches their order they may be charged in court and, if convicted, could be sentenced to up to two years' imprisonment.

Corrections' National Commissioner Rachel Leota said public safety and reducing reoffending were the department's "primary goals".

"An ESO is used to identify and monitor offenders in the community who post a real and ongoing risk of committing serious sexual and violent offending," she said.

"Extended supervision is aimed at managing long term risks posed by this offending in the community by monitoring a person's activities or whereabouts over an extended period of time."

Leota said anyone subject to an ESO was managed by Community Corrections in accordance with the conditions of their specific order.

Tony Robertson appears for sentencing in the Auckland High Court for the rape and murder of Blessie Gotingco while subject to an Extended Supervision Order. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Those conditions always included reporting regularly to a probation officer, constraints on their residence and employment and restrictions on who they could contact including victims and people under 16.

"Corrections can apply to the Parole Board to request special conditions be imposed to an offender's specific risks which can include electronic monitoring, restricting an offender's whereabouts or particular activities or compulsory participation in programmes," Leota said.

The Herald has recently reported on two offenders subject to long-term orders.

In August it could finally be revealed that notorious sex offender Ronald Van Der Plaat, 84, had been before the courts since late 2017 for repeat breaches of his ESO.

In 2000 Van Der Plaat was jailed for 14 years for subjecting his daughter Tanjas Darke to "bizarre and depraved" sexual abuse between 1983 and 1992.

After his release from prison in 2016 - after being earlier paroled and recalled for breaching his conditions - the Department of Corrections granted an extended supervision order with full-time GPS monitoring and a ban on contact with anyone under 16.

However, in June 2017 he was charged with breaching that order after he was allegedly seen by a number of people speaking to a young girl in the Te Atatu street where he was living.

He was eventually charged with four breaches but after more than two years before the courts Judge Noel Sainsbury deemed Van Der Plaat unfit to enter a plea or stand trial due to his worsening dementia.

The original breached charge was stayed and Van Der Plaat was released from the court system.

Under Van Der Plaat's ESO he must live at a care facility full time and has a curfew.

But he is allowed out on short-term day visits with approved caregivers - and allowed to return to his West Auckland home.

His ability to come and go from the address where much of his offending and alleged breaches occurred has infuriated residents.

Last week one took a photograph of the sex offender emerging from a taxi in the street - where trespass orders prevent him from entering most other properties.

Earlier in August an ESO was granted in the High Court at Auckland for Laken McKay - a recidivist child sex offender.

McKay was released from prison in early September and the order will remain in place for at least seven years.

McKay, who was convicted under the name Rory Francis, was sentenced to nine years and four months in prison in 2010 for rape and other sexual offending against boys and girls in 2010.

Earlier indecent offending against boys in 2005 resulted in a sentence of one year and three months.

While in prison McKay began to identify as a woman and changed her name.

She is HIV positive and wrote to the Herald from behind bars, saying she would to give "many people HIV, HEP C" if she was released into the community.

In court Corrections lawyer Jessica Blythe said McKay had a "pervasive" pattern of serious sexual offending and there was a "high risk" that she would commit further sex crimes.

Blythe outlined McKay's raft of sex offending against little boys and girls including indecent assault, rape and doing indecent acts with children under 12.

"There is ample evidence that Ms McKay has an intense drive or urge to commit a sexual offence," Blythe told the court.

"There is no evidence that Ms McKay's risk has diminished in light of her becoming a woman."

Laken McKay in the Auckland High Court. Photo / Anna Leask

She added that McKay had been assessed as being in the moderate to high category for sexual violent reoffending and also had a similar score when tested for serious sexual deviancy.

McKay was assessed as having high degrees of impulsivity, poor emotional control and insight, offence planning, deviant sexual interests and, further, she had no real support in the community.

She said the court should be satisfied based on the evidence that McKay would - not might - commit further and similar sex offending in future.

One of the most high profile ESO breaches was Tony Robertson in 2014.

Months after he was released from prison for kidnapping and molesting a 5-year-old girl he raped and murdered North Shore woman Blessie Gotingco.

Robertson had been jailed in October 2006 for eight years after being found guilty of seven charges, including indecently assaulting the 5-year-old and attempting to abduct two other children.

On his release in December 2013, he breached his conditions twice in a few weeks and was deemed such a danger an ESO was granted for the full 10-year period.

Robertson was also subject to GPS monitoring when he hit Gotingco, 56, with his car before he took her to his home, where she was raped and then stabbed to death.