Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking that will be used on sex offender Stewart Wilson will be so comprehensive monitors will be able to tell if he is running, in a car, or standing in the same place and for how long.
Wilson, 65, known as the Beast of Blenheim, has served 18 years of a 21-year sentence for sexual offending against women and girls including rape, indecent assault, stupefying, wilful ill-treatment and bestiality.
He has served the maximum time and can no longer be kept in jail. He will be let out on parole within the next three weeks and will be subject to unprecedented, strict release conditions. He will live in a house on the grounds of Whanganui Prison.
Among those conditions he must wear a GPS tracking bracelet that will allow Corrections Department staff to monitor his movements at all times.
Corrections community probation services assistant general manager Maria McDonald said GPS monitoring was being rolled out in New Zealand this month and 10 sex offenders on extended supervision would be tracked by GPS before Wilson. Wilson would be the first paroled sex offender to be tracked by GPS.