Preventive detention to be considered for sex offender

By David Clarkson

A repeat sex offender assessed as an on-going risk to girls aged under 16 has been sent to the High Court for an open-ended sentence of preventive detention to be considered.

Barry Ronald Woodhouse, 54, is facing his third prison term for sex offending after his latest convictions at a Christchurch District Court jury trial.

Woodhouse has already served a six-year jail term for the sexual violation of a 15-year-old girl who he had plied with drink.

Then in 2006 he was sentenced to a seven-year term for an indecent assault on a girl aged under 16, who was working as a prostitute, and for supplying her with the class C drug Temazepan.

That girl believed that after a three-in-a-bed session with Woodhouse and another girl, she had been anally penetrated while she was comatose. The jury acquitted Woodhouse of that sexual violation charge.

Now he has been convicted again for sexual connection with a girl aged 15, and indecently assaulting her.

He has also admitted a charge of breaching the extended supervision order he was on at the time by continuing the relationship with the young person. An earlier breach of the same order involved him being away from home overnight when he was considering a move to the West Coast.

Woodhouse has been described as a labourer. Earlier hearings have been told he lived an unstable life and had difficulty reading.

Prosecutor Karyn South said the Crown sought a sentence of preventive detention because of the continued similar offending. She said: “The real test here is the risk, and in my submission it is clear from the two health assessors’ reports that risk remains an on-going factor.”

She noted that Woodhouse had offending this time while under an extended supervision order. “An ESO coupled with a finite prison term is not going to ameliorate the risk to an acceptable level.”

Defence counsel Phillip Allan argued that the latest offending was not so serious that preventive detention should be considered. The likely total sentence would be less than the minimum non-parole term imposed by a preventive detention term.

Judge John Macdonald gave Woodhouse a first strike warning under the system that imposes heavier sentences on repeat violent offenders.

He said Woodhouse had already served two significant prison sentences for sex offences. “Along the way, you have had the intervention of the Kia Marama programme for sex offenders, and an extended supervision order. Despite this, you have now been convicted of this further offending.”

Judge Macdonald told Woodhouse: “I have read the two health assessors’ reports and what they indicate in broad terms is that there is evidence that demonstrates that you continue to pose a significant and on-going risk to the safety of the community, and particularly to girls under 16 years of age. That goes to the heart of the matter.”

He then declined jurisdiction and sent the case for sentence in the High Court – which has the power to impose preventive detention – on December 6.