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A child sex offender is allowed to live free in the community for the first time in almost 20 years, after Victorian authorities lost an appeal to keep him under supervision at a secure location.
- Robin Fletcher, 60, was convicted in 1998 of sexual offences against two 15yo girls
- He was released from prison in 2006 but has since been living in a secret location
- Court ruling means he can live in the community for the first time in two decades
Robin Fletcher, 60, was convicted in 1998 of various sexual offences committed against two 15-year-old girls who were subjected to violent sexual acts.
The Supreme Court previously heard he had explained his behaviour as being part of a pagan ritual, justified by his religious beliefs as a Wiccan.
Mr Fletcher was released from prison in 2006 and has been living under a supervision order ever since, requiring him to reside at a secret and secure location.
The Court of Appeal upheld an earlier ruling made by the Supreme Court that the order should now be revoked due to the fact Mr Fletcher no longer poses an unacceptable risk to the community.
The Department of Justice had challenged the decision, despite accepting the court's finding the serious sex offender now posed only a moderate risk of reoffending.
The Court of Appeal ruled Mr Fletcher's lowered risk of reoffending was critical to the decision not to continue a supervision order.
"Of course, predictive exercises of this kind are at best uncertain but this was a very powerful finding," the court said.
"It would be strange indeed if ... a person assessed at such low-risk were nevertheless to continue to be held in detention."
The court was earlier told Mr Fletcher still holds the same religious beliefs but now recognises the illegality of his behaviour.
In releasing him back into the community, Justice Priest relied on expert evidence as well as other factors including his age, physical infirmity and lack of eyesight.
"Further, although his offending two decades ago was abhorrent, it needs to be remembered that [Fletcher] has been convicted of relevant offending only once in his life, in peculiar circumstances which are unlikely to be replicated," he said.
"[Fletcher] is intelligent and, notwithstanding that he may still hold aberrant beliefs, he has the cognitive capacity to desist from future offending.
"There is little doubt, in my view, that 10 years' imprisonment, together with a further decade of supervision in conditions severely curtailing his freedom, has had a strongly deterrent effect upon him."
Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, sexual-offences, melbourne-3000, vic, australia
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