Woman menace ‘attracted to boys’
The Christchurch woman branded “a public menace” is attracted to pre-pubescent boys, a court was told at her latest sentencing.
Margaret Mabel Dodds, 59, was jailed for three months for two breaches of her prison release conditions, and one charge of breaching an intensive supervision sentence.
The woman is well known to the courts for charges relating to talking to, following, and assaulting children. She has a long record of assaults on her caregivers.
Notices about Dodds have appeared on social media websites and notice boards in school staffrooms. She has been described as a public menace because of her history of confronting or assaulting children.
Defence counsel Paul Johnson said Dodds had a severe personality disorder, and lived at the Seager Clinic at Princess Margaret Hospital.
He told Christchurch District Court Judge Paul Kellar that if Dodds got a sentence any longer than three months in prison she would be ousted from the clinic and would have nowhere to live.
He said it appeared society had turned their back on her, and she had been trespassed from malls, parks, schools, and public transport.
Dodds had come to court prepared to go to prison today, he said.
Judge Kellar said Dodds was released from prison last year on similar charges, and given prison release conditions that she was not to approach anyone under 16.
She was seen on January 22 talking to a young child at an address she had been trespassed from, and in February she approached two young children at a café in a hospital, and then followed the distressed children up to a ward.
Judge Kellar read from a report prepared for the sentencing which said Dodds was attracted to pre-pubescent males.
He said her risk of harm to others was very high, and there was no other sentence but prison available for her.
He sentenced her to three months prison, and suspended her existing sentence of intensive supervision sentence until her release.
Category: Focus
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