A law change allowing alerts to be placed on criminals' passports is being considered after a repeat sex offender fled New Zealand to the Philippines while on parole, the Corrections Minister says.
David Stanley Tranter, 59 has been wanted since 2007 when he was freed from prison and placed on extended supervision orders - conditions placed on the most serious sex offenders for up to 10 years, The Dominion Post reported.
The Corrections Department said it could not seize passports and did not have the authority to place alerts on offenders' passports.
Corrections Minister Judith Collins said she was now looking at whether that law should be changed.
Tranter was jailed for three years for the indecent assaults of two girls, aged 11 and 13, in 2000, after beginning a relationship with their mother through an internet dating agency.
Just six weeks after serving his sentence he assaulted a 16-year-old girl in a daylight attack on a Christchurch street and was sentenced to four years' jail.
Tranter had also been convicted on an historic child-sex charge in 1968. Five months after his release he fled the country.
Police issued a warrant for his arrest in August 2007 for breaching his parole and extended supervision order.
Tranter was arrested in the Philippines in June for failing to produce his passport to immigration officials.
Lawyer Floro Balato, from the Philippines Commission of Immigration, said Tranter could be deported to New Zealand in about two weeks, Mr Balato said.
NZPA