By Al Williams, Open Justice reporter<\/p>\n
An ultra-high-risk sex offender who was the first in New Zealand to be subjected to a public protection order will remain in a secure facility after failing to convince the courts that a less intrusive order be made.<\/p>\n
Glen Anthony Douglas-Finch, 34, was also the first person to enter the Matawh\u0101iti Residence in the precinct of the Christchurch Men\u2019s Prison where he has lived for more than nine years.<\/p>\n
The High Court has accepted an application from the Department of Corrections to impose a further PPO after a decision by the Court of Appeal allowing an appeal against earlier PPO decisions.<\/p>\n
The 2024 Court of Appeal decision set aside the original PPO, which had\u00a0been in place since 2016, agreeing there was a failure to properly determine whether a less intrusive order could have been made.<\/p>\n
Douglas-Finch\u00a0opposed the application and wanted an Extended Supervision Order (ESO) with an intensive monitoring condition.<\/p>\n
An ESO is used to monitor and manage the long-term risk posed by a high-risk sex offender or a very high-risk violent offender who is back in the community.<\/p>\n
A public protection order allows the detention of very high-risk individuals at a secure facility within prison precincts.<\/p>\n
The order may be put in place for individuals who have served a finite prison sentence but still pose a very high risk of imminent and serious sexual or violent offending and cannot be safely managed in the community.<\/p>\n
Douglas-Finch is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) alongside a degree of intellectual impairment.<\/p>\n
Justice David Gendall said\u00a0Douglas-Finch had, since childhood, exhibited a propensity for initiating inappropriate sexual contact with young people, and had a long history of problematic sexual behaviour.<\/p>\n
The early sexualisation arose in the context of Douglas-Finch being subject to early childhood abuse.<\/p>\n
He was placed in residential care aged 10 and displayed an extensive pattern of premeditated and predatory sexual behaviour to other boys at the facility, despite supervision and having a teacher\u2019s aide with him at all times.<\/p>\n
His criminal offending began in 2006, when he was convicted on two counts of sexual connection with a young person aged between 12 and 16.<\/p>\n
He was subjected to intensive supervision, which he breached in 2009, despite being under 24-hour intensive supervision.<\/p>\n
In 2011, he was convicted on a charge of common assault that occurred at a public swimming pool, which was reported to have been sexually motivated.<\/p>\n
In mid-2013, Douglas-Finch contacted a 13-year-old boy using false details and began sexually offending against him.<\/p>\n
It led to two further convictions for sexual connection with a young person aged between 12 and 16 years and he was\u00a0jailed for three years.<\/p>\n
He was also made subject to an interim detention order.<\/p>\n
Shortly afterwards, he was convicted on 11 charges of possessing objectionable publications.<\/p>\n
At the High Court hearing in October last year, the court heard Douglas-Finch was using anti-libido medication and unwilling to engage with professionals when in a heightened emotional state.<\/p>\n
He had an intensive drive to offend against pubescent or prepubescent males.<\/p>\n
A health assessor told the court Douglas-Finch had\u00a0enduring sex drive and urges\u00a0that had been present for a long time.<\/p>\n
He was described as egocentric with impaired social comprehension.<\/p>\n
The court heard that if he was to live in the community, it was very likely he would be isolated and it was probable he could become fixated on a sexual goal.<\/p>\n
He had essentially been institutionalised for most of his life and would continue to require external assistance to regulate his emotions and manage his stresses and his sexual risk.<\/p>\n
Justice Gendall said it would be in Douglas-Finch\u2019s best interests, as well as the interests of the community, for him to have the continuing and detailed support and protective environment of\u00a0Matawh\u0101iti Residence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am satisfied there is a strong justification for a PPO to be made in respect of Mr Douglas-Finch with him remaining at Matawh\u0101iti in the meantime, given there is a very high risk of imminent serious sexual offending occurring here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my view, an ESO is inadequate to mitigate the risk Mr Douglas-Finch poses to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Al Williams, Open Justice reporter An ultra-high-risk sex offender who was the first in New Zealand to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-316221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}