Online predator: Convicted Dunedin paedophile busted with Tinder account

Daniel Goodwin had multiple online accounts. Photo / Rob Kidd

A Dunedin man who was jailed for sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy set up a secret Tinder account once released from prison, a court has heard.

That and the creation of other social media accounts that Daniel Paul Goodwin did not report to his case manager represented breaches of his obligations under the Child Sex Offender Register.

The 36-year-old appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after admitting the charge and was assessed as having a "blase attitude".

In 2017, Goodwin was jailed for 18 months for doing an indecent act on a boy.

As a result of that he received his first strike under the three-strikes regime and was placed on the Child Sex Offender Register for 15 years.

At that sentencing, the court heard the defendant had shown the boy pornography on his laptop before sexually assaulting him.

When Goodwin was released in March 2018 he was informed of his obligations under the register.

Among them was the direction to inform his case manager of social media accounts he was operating.

In October 2020 he was given a deferred sentence for contravening that condition, but it did not have the desired effect.

Nine months later, he admitted he had a previously undisclosed Facebook account under the name "Bam Bam Chapman".

The case manager discovered that account had been created nearly two months earlier.

And the deception ran further.

Goodwin said he also had a profile on the dating app Tinder and one on photo and video-sharing platform Instagram.

He told police he did not think he had to provide such details.

"I don't believe that for one moment," Judge David Robinson said.

"You knew exactly what was required of you."

Daniel Goodwin admitted he used the internet to search for sexual partners. Photo / Rob Kidd

Goodwin was assessed as a high likelihood of reoffending and of harm to others.

The court heard he acknowledged he used the internet to search for potential sexual partners but could not identify the risk factors in doing so.

Counsel Brendan Stephenson said there was no suggestion his client's behaviour had been linked to further sex offending but the judge said the "irresistible inference" was that the man was concealing something.

Judge Robinson was sceptical when it came to Goodwin's commitment to rehabilitation.

"I simply don't accept your expressed motivation is genuine," he said.

Goodwin was sentenced to 150 hours' community work.

Another breach would most likely result in imprisonment, the judge warned.

"I don't want that," Goodwin said.