Jail for offender with ‘chilling’ thoughts about children
File image. © Andrew Bardwell
A judge says it was “chilling” to hear about Margaret Mabel Dodds’ thoughts as she sat in a Sydenham park watching a small boy kicking a ball.
The 60-year-old says she had gone to the park on August 19 intending to take her own life with an overdose of pain medication she had bought at a supermarket.
But she told a probation officer later that as she sat on a bench watching the boy, she thought about what she could do to him.
Judge Brian Callaghan said those thoughts were the “chilling issue” as he sentenced Dodds to another term of imprisonment for breaching the terms of her intensive supervision order to stay away from children.
He jailed her for four months, after hearing defence counsel Kirsty May tell the court that Dodds had found her last jail term extremely hard, and the length of the latest term will mean she loses her place at the Seager Clinic at Princess Margaret Hospital.
Judge Callaghan, who found her guilty at a trial in January, said the pre-sentence reports showed Dodds was “highly motivated to seek out children, particularly pre-pubescent boys”.
She had been entitled to be at the park – apparently one of the few places in the city she had not been trespassed from – but once a child arrived she should have just moved on rather than “lingering” in breach of the order.
In fact a woman who was there with her own children had recognised Dodds from the frequent posts about her on social media, and had watched for a time before telling the boy he should go home.
Dodds did take the overdose, and when police found her close to the park they had to take her to hospital.
Mrs May said Dodds was portrayed as a person who sexually offended against children even though she had no record of that at all. She only had one charge of assaulting a child, in 2014.
“She suffers verbal abuse wherever she goes including while she is waiting to be dealt with at the court,” said Mrs May.
She said it was hoped that supported accommodation for Dodds might become available, but it was a matter of waiting for a place to be vacated. “Everyone seems fairly positive it might happen by the end of the year.”
“In her own way, she is as vulnerable as the children the courts are trying to protect,” said Mrs May. “She is completely institutionalised after 13 years in the Seager Clinic.” Sentences of imprisonment did not “advance” her, and she found the jail time extremely hard.
Dodds has a record of assaults on her adult caregivers, and has recently served jail terms for breaches of supervision and prison release conditions.
Judge Callaghan said he accepted there had been no actual contact with the child, but he told Dodds: “You are a continuing danger.”
The Probation Service and the judge said there was no alternative to a prison term. The judge jailed her for four months and suspended the supervision in the meantime, but said it could be reactivated when she is released.
Category: News
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