11.20am
Repeat paedophile Peter Liddell was this morning sentenced to indefinite preventive detention for the violation of a 15-year-old boy.
Sentencing him in the High Court in Auckland, Justice Bruce Robertson said he should serve a minimum five-year non-parole period.
He said: "I am duty bound to adopt a course that will most
ensure ongoing protection of young people and of yourself from yourself."
Liddell was being sentenced for one charge of sexual violation by way of unlawful sexual connection of a 15 year old boy.
In June, Liddell, a former social worker and Kings College guidance counsellor, admitted sexually violating the boy but was freed on bail so he could look after his sick mother until he was sentenced.
The court had earlier heard Liddell enticed the boy to stay with him at Grahams Beach on the southern shores of Manukau Harbour in 2002.
Residents in the area were outraged when they discovered he was living there. They had not been told he was a convicted paedophile.
Liddell is one of NZ's most notorious sex offenders. In 1993, he was sentenced to two and half years in prison on offences that had occurred over a 16 year period.
In August 1994, he was sentenced on 13 charges to seven years and nine months which was to be served accumulatively with the other sentence.
Detective Sergeant Alan Symonds said that though Liddell was not the worst offender, he had destroyed many lives.
He commended the bravery of the 15 year old boy in making the complaint.
Mr Symonds said: "I have nothing but the highest respect for this young man."
He added: "He is doing OK, but he's not great. He's got a bit of work to do."
- HERALD STAFF / NZPA
