Sex offender in court over web contact
A DANGEROUS sex offender, accused of breaching his supervision order by contacting an intellectually-impaired female, has been released from custody.
Nigel Patrick Robinson served nine years in jail for raping a 19-year-old woman at knifepoint after he stalked her from a Gympie shopping centre and then indecently assaulted a nine-year-old girl he approached in a Gympie schoolyard.
Robinson was kept in custody past his full-time release date in 2006 because his Gympie home was deemed "unsuitable" by authorities because of its close proximity to the school.
But he was released in 2009 on a supervision order made under the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003.
One of the conditions of his release was that he comply with reasonable directions from corrective services officers.
In March this year, a corrective services officer directed he have no contact with a female. It is not clear whether the female is a woman or a child, nor whether is she related to the above offences.
Robinson faced the Brisbane Supreme Court after being arrested for allegedly contravening his order and asked for immediate release.
He argued exceptional circumstances meant his detention could not be justified.
Justice Phillip McMurdo said it was clear Robinson failed to comply with a no-contact direction which was made after Robinson informed authorities he was associating with the female through the internet and she was about to arrive in Queensland to meet him.
He said Robinson continued to send text messages and have conversations for two to three more weeks.
"Ultimately, there may or may not be a question as to whether that direction was reasonable and, therefore, whether he breached a condition of his order," he said.
"It seems the corrective services were concerned as to the risk that might come from this association in the circumstances where ... (she) is intellectually impaired."
But Justice McMurdo said Robinson had since changed his SIM card so the female could not contact him and has been under a 24-hour curfew.
"There does not seem to be any real prospect of the contact resuming between them," he said.
Robinson will face a hearing to determine whether he breached the order on a date to be fixed.
