JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/Stuff
Joseph Warren Lepper has been denied parole, and will be seen again in two years.
A violent sex offender denied parole has been told to work on his behaviour.
Joseph Warren Lepper was sentenced to preventive detention for abducting a woman for unlawful sex in central Dunedin in 2013.
At his 2014 sentencing, the Dunedin District Court heard the 46-year-old drove from Christchurch to Dunedin on a ‘mission to rape’.
In that incident he and a teenager tried to snatch a young woman off the street in a poorly lit industrial area, intending to sexually assault her.
They could not get her in their van because she screamed and fought against them until people living nearby came to help her. She was distraught, bruised, sore, and handfuls of her hair were pulled out.
Last month, Lepper appeared before the New Zealand Parole Board via audiovisual link, with the board noting his ‘’very long history of violent and property offending, and earlier sexual offending’’.
The Dunedin offence came after Lepper finished six months’ probation-like conditions, following his release from a 10 years’ jail term for raping a jogger in New Plymouth.
During his prison sentence, Lepper had seriously injured another inmate when a pool cue struck the man’s eye socket and pierced his brain.
The board noted Lepper had taken part in several rehabilitation programmes, but concerns remained about his conduct.
Lepper addressed the board about a history of what he claimed was unfair treatment by Corrections, including unfair misconduct charges, abuse by other prisoners, and abuse by prison officers.
Lepper accepted that part of the reason for his high security classification was his own poor conduct.
His prison notes said that Lepper was ‘’demanding, verbally aggressive and somewhat unpredictable’’.
A reduction in his security classification at his next review was unlikely. Lepper agreed to work on his own behaviour, and try and keep out of trouble.
A reduction in his high security classification would enable him to undertake the Adult Sex Offender Treatment Programme.
Lepper, who was assessed at being above average risk of sexual re-offending, would be seen by the board by the middle of 2025.
