Recidivist child porn offender to be released next month

The Parole Board fears Stephen Lang will continue to look at internet porn. Photo / File

An Auckland man repeatedly jailed for accessing child pornography will be released from prison next month under strict conditions to try to stop him offending again.
Stephen Lang, 34, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March 2008 for offending involving objectionable - specifically child - pornography.

He was released on parole in 2011 but within weeks had reoffended.

Laing started by looking at adult pornography on the internet, which was a breach of his parole conditions. Soon after, he was looking at child pornography.

Laing was sent back to prison.

He also has earlier convictions for similar offending.

In 2003, he was sentenced to two years' supervision and in 2005 received a one-year prison sentence.

The Parole Board refused to release him in July, saying he still posed an "undue risk" to the community.

However his sentence will end on October 16 and by law he must be released from prison.

He will be subject to GPS monitoring for six months and has been banned from using the internet or any device that can access the internet, and cannot enter internet cafes without police permission.

Although the Parole Board has no power to keep him behind bars, they can and have imposed conditions for the first six months after Laing's release.

If he breaches any of the conditions he could be recalled to prison.

The July Parole Board decision states that Laing has completed a sex offender programme while in prison, but they were not satisfied he would not reoffend.

"The Board was also concerned about the lack of oversight and strategies that Mr Laing had in place to keep him offence-free on release, given he was seen as posing a high risk of reoffending," said the board's panel convener Martha Coleman.

"Mr Laing is in a similar position before this Board today. The one positive step is that it appears that he has taken steps to ensure that there is a continuity of psychological assistance available to him on his release.

"Mr Laing was quite candid about the difficulty that he will have in staying away from accessing pornography.

"He says that he knows it is up to him to stay within the boundaries, but clearly he is quite apprehensive about his own ability to stay safe in the community."

Coleman said Laing gave an example of that at his parole hearing.

He told the board that he did not want to attend a relapse prevention group in prison "because he was concerned that he would be asked by other attendees to access child pornography and provide it to them".

"With his past rapid relapse into reoffending and his own admission that he will find staying offence-free a difficult challenge for him the Board cannot be satisfied that he would not pose an undue risk if he was to be released on parole prior to his statutory release date," Coleman said.

"For this reason parole is declined and the Board moves to set final release conditions for Mr Laing."

The board imposed a number of special conditions along with the standard conditions of parole.