Visit to shopping mall leads to jail term
A man who breached an extended supervision order when he went to pick up a woman from South City Mall, pleaded guilty to the breach and was sentenced to a term in prison.
Duane Charles Brendon Paul Burgess, of Sydenham, was subject to an ESO issued by the courts in May 2013 for repeat sexual offending.
He received a message from elderly woman and went to collect her at 5.30pm on a winter’s night, a visit that was picked up on his GPS monitoring.
One of the conditions of the order bans him from entering or loitering on the grounds of any public library, school, park, playground, “or any other area that children under the age of 16 may frequent or congregate within for any purpose including education, entertainment, or religious observation”.
Defence counsel Anselm Williams said Burgess didn’t loiter at the mall, and met her at the doorway.
He said Burgess was having difficulties about the flexibility and reasonableness of the order.
Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish said Burgess could seek a judicial review of how he is being managed by the Probation Department.
Burgess replied that he found that the instructions changed from one probation officer to the next, and he would obey them from one officer, and get breached for the same conduct from another.
Judge Farish said Burgess was at the mall when there would not be a lot of children there, and sentenced him to eight months’ prison.
Category: Focus
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