Hugo’s offences against the two girls spanned nearly a year from 2019 to 2020, when he was 20 to 21 years old.
The offending against the younger girl took place at her home after he had given her a guitar lesson.
In the case of the 14-year-old girl, he went to her house after grooming her through a social media app and gave her an unknown pill – thought to be MDMA - before having sex with her.
When police seized Hugo’s electronic devices they found a number of indecent images, including one of an unknown pre-teen girl performing a sex act on an unknown man.
In 2021, Hugo was convicted of a raft of offences: meeting with a young person following sexual grooming, sexual connection with a person aged 12 to 15, two charges of indecent assault on a girl under 12 and six charges of possessing objectionable publications.
Hugo was subject to release conditions when he was let out of jail the following year.
The Department of Corrections then applied for and was granted an ESO.
The purpose of an ESO is to protect the community from people who pose a “real and ongoing risk” of committing serious sexual or violent offences.
An interim ESO was imposed on Hugo in September 2022 and a further 18-month ESO was handed down in August last year so that he could continue to be monitored.
The criteria for imposing an ESO on a sex offender are set out in the Parole Act 2002.
Among them, an offender has to have a “pervasive pattern of serious sexual offending” and display “an intense drive, desire or urge” to commit a sexual offence.
Hugo took his case to the Court of Appeal, arguing that the judge who imposed the ESO was wrong to find that these criteria had been met.
His lawyers disputed that Hugo had displayed a “pervasive pattern” of serious sexual offending, even though he also had a history of minor sexual misconduct when he was younger, in addition to his offending as an adult.
They said there was no evidence that he would relapse back into offending and that it was no longer possible to say that he displayed any intense desire or urge.
Hugo had completed two-thirds of an offence-specific treatment programme, had created a safety plan and wanted to make a positive change, the lawyers said.
He had also spent a year in the community after being released, without committing any further sexual offences.
The appeal court judges said they did not hesitate to find that Hugo’s sexual offending was serious.
“We do not, however, find that Mr Hugo’s offending constitutes a pervasive pattern.”
The judges also formed the view that, given the lack of evidence of Hugo relapsing, it was no longer possible to say he displayed an intense desire or urge.
They quashed the ESO that had been imposed.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.
