30-07-2025
Supervision of released high risk sex offender should be allowed to lapse High Court hears
The case was heard in the High Court in Wellington.
Photo:
RNZ / Angus Dreaver
The High Court in Wellington has heard Correction's supervision of a high risk sexual offender released earlier this year should be allowed to lapse.
Local Democracy Reporting previously reported Nathaniel James Mahoney was sentenced to 10 years' jail in 2015 after he was found guilty on 10 charges of sexual and physical violence against four women.
In one instance, Mahoney raped an 18-year-old autistic woman.
He met her at a North Island comic book convention while dressed as
Batman
villain the Joker.
The victim was dressed as the Joker's girlfriend Harley Quinn.
In the High Court on Wednesday counsel for Mahoney, Charlotte Brook, argued that Corrections had erred in making a second Extended Supervision Order (ESO) application towards Mahoney that could nullify an existing one made ahead of his release.
People under a
supervision order
are monitored by authorities, and might have conditions around where they can live and work, and who they interacted with.
Brook said an implication of lodging a second order was it could allow for Mahoney to be in the community without supervision in the period between his release conditions expiring in August and an expected decision on the application due in November.
She said interim supervision intended to monitor Mahoney in the lead-up to the decision could not be included in the second ESO as it had not been applied for while Mahoney was still incarcerated.
"Corrections filed the second application intending to change the terms of the first one. They want a longer term. It's not Mr Mahoney's fault that the second one has been filed," Brook said.
Brook cited previous decisions which characterised ESO's as "a second penalty and... an unjustified intrusion of a person's rights".
She described the conditions of Mahoney's supervision orders as "intrusive" and argued the court should take a rights based approach in making its decision.
"Mr Mahoney has been assessed as being very high risk but you can only take these preventative measures so far," Brook said.
Justice Karen Grau observed that Mahoney's high risk of re-offending had increased following an incident relating to interactions with women during a prior employment placement initiative.
Counsel for the Department of Corrections, Anselm Williams, argued there was nothing in legislation to stipulate the filing of a second ESO application would discontinue a prior application.
"I don't accept ... that a court would decline the department's application when you have a person who is clearly a high risk and that risk has increased over the time that application is being considered," Williams said.
Williams argued that interim supervision was not only necessary to protect the community but to enable Corrections to "provide rehabilitative options" for Mahoney.
Justice Grau reserved her decision to be delivered ahead of Mahoney's release conditions expiring in early August.
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