By Janika ter Ellen
Justice Minister Judith Collins wants retroactive legislation which would mean Stewart Murray Wilson, the serial sex offender known as the Beast of Blenheim, could be recalled to jail.
Ms Collins says she'll push for a bill to allow for public protection orders, or a concept known as civil detention, to also cover former prisoners like Wilson subject to extended supervision orders. That would mean Wilson could again be detained.
On the eve of his release, Unit Five at Whanganui Prison's cluster of as self-care houses is ready for his arrival. More black polyurethane has been erected on makeshift fences to give him privacy.
But Ms Collins would prefer he isn't freed.
“Somebody with the sort of offending history of Stewart Murray Wilson, who has shown no remorse and is considered to be of extreme danger to members of the public, that is the sort of person who is likely to be subject to one of these orders,” says Ms Collins.
They would be called public protection orders and would allow a High Court judge to review the cases of former prisoners subject to extended supervision orders – where very dangerous offenders are monitored even after their parole ends.
They would be re-assessed by a judge in a civil, rather than criminal, proceeding, and if they're considered too dangerous, locked up again. That means it's essentially retroactive.
“I don't want these people out,” says Ms Collins.
Such orders, also known as civil detention, had been proposed by Ms Collins during the 2008 election campaign when she was Corrections Minister.
But this is the first time she has acknowledged that she wants them to apply retroactively to people like Wilson.
There is bound to be plenty of opposition. Human rights lawyers 3 News spoke to described the suggestion of retroactive legislation as barbaric – a breach of the Bill of Rights and the Sentencing Act. But Judith Collins says it will be a balance between offenders’ rights and the rights of victims, and she sides with the victims.
3 News