Sex offender back in jail after breach of orders

A child-sex offender, who slipped off the Corrections Department radar and turned himself in when a warrant for his arrest was issued, has been jailed for breaching his extended supervision orders.

A warrant for Adam Biddle, 39, was issued in May after he breached his extended supervision orders and could not be found earlier this year. He turned himself in to Whanganui police a short time later.

He appeared in the Wanganui District Court this week, having pleaded guilty to three breaches of supervision related to his disappearance and a charge of intentional damage.

The latest convictions bring his total number of extended supervision breaches to more than 10 since it was first imposed upon him in 2006.

Extended supervision imposes parole-like conditions on offenders for up to 10 years after their release from prison, and is used by the department to monitor child-sex offenders in the community.

Judge David Cameron sentenced Biddle to eight months in prison for the breaches, and convicted and discharged him on the charge of intentional damage.

In court, lawyer Stephen Ross said his client had come to a point where he did not want to stay at his approved place of residence in Hamilton and had unsuccessfully tried to get approval from probation to move to Wanganui.

The three breaches related to him moving without consent on April 19, then failing to report as instructed on that same day, and again on April 20.

At first he went to Porirua but he had moved up to Wanganui when he was arrested.

Before moving, on April 13, he got angry at his probation officer when he was told he was in breach of his release conditions unrelated to the current offences and was served with a summons.

He thumped on a set of drawers and kicked them in a rage, damaging the probation officer's desk.

Judge Cameron told Biddle: "If you continue to breach it, you will continue to be sent to prison. All you have to do, Mr Biddle, is comply with the terms."