Sex fiend attacked twice while under strict supervision

Andre Port has been found guilty for two sexually motivated attacks and will be sentenced in the High Court next week. Photo / Martin Sykes

One of New Zealand's most dangerous sex criminals attacked two women while on parole and under Corrections Department supervision.

Described as a timebomb by family, Andre Charles Port served a 10-year prison sentence for sexually motivated attacks on women and was released in November 2007, subject to strict parole supervision orders for six months after being freed.

However, three days before the supervision conditions ended, in May 2008, the 31-year-old Port crept up on a woman in the changing rooms at the ASB Tennis Centre in Auckland.

He tried to drag her into a sauna in a brazen daylight attack but fled when the woman fought back.

Two weeks later, Port abducted a nurse from the Epsom lodge he was staying in. At knifepoint, Port made her drive to a country road in Muriwai, West Auckland. The 41-year-old woman managed to escape and Port fled in her car. He was arrested later that day.

In July, while in custody, he was interviewed by detectives inside Auckland Central Remand Prison and later charged with the attack in the tennis changing room.

Port has been found guilty for both sexually motivated attacks and will be sentenced in the High Court at Auckland next week.

His parole conditions meant that Port could not leave his residence without the direct supervision of an approved adult for six months after his release. A Corrections Department spokeswoman said those conditions were relaxed a few days before his parole was due to end on May 13.

Probation staff continued to visit Port on a daily basis, including the day of the Parnell attack on May 10. When Port was arrested for the Epsom abduction on May 25, Corrections began an internal inquiry that found probation staff were not at fault.

"It is important to note that a sentence of supervision does not mean an offender is under 24-hour supervision by Corrections staff," said the spokeswoman.

As a teenager in 1996, police circulated a photo of Port to a Christchurch primary school, as they feared he could be a danger to children.

At the time, he was under the care of the Social Welfare Department, which had spent more than $250,000 on a sex offender rehabilitation scheme in which six minders watched him 24 hours a day.

The following year, Port indecently assaulted a Christchurch woman in a YMCA gym shower and punched another woman in an office toilet on the same day.

He later told police he "just wanted to hurt women". He was sentenced to four years' jail by Christchurch District Court Judge Stephen Erber, who assessed the risk of further offending as high, if not certain.

Two years later, a 19-year-old Port was jailed for a further six years for attacking a female prison officer while on a sex offenders' rehabilitation course.

He confronted her in a staff toilet with a large knife, reportedly saying: "I don't want to hurt you, Miss, but an officer has to go down tonight."

The officer managed to convince him to hand over the knife and he was banned from the sex offender programme.

A year before he was released on parole, Port was charged with injuring murderer Jason Fergusson, a fellow Paremoremo inmate. Port had agreed to help Fergusson end his life in return for CDs and writing implements. However, he became squeamish and could not complete the deal.

In sentencing him for the crime, Justice Geoffrey Venning said Port was on drugs for depression and to control mood swings, had borderline mental retardation and personality disorder, and an anti-social type behaviour.

The High Court in Auckland was told Port was born with foetal alcohol syndrome and was placed in care aged 4.

He went to the Kingslea youth detention centre at 10, but his difficulties were not sufficiently severe to be able to order compulsory treatment under the Mental Health and Intellectual Disability acts.

He was sentenced to two years' supervision, but was released in November 2007. Six months later, he had committed the attacks in Parnell and Epsom.