AUCKLAND: A convicted sex offender has told the Parole Board he didn’t realise the contact he had with his young victim was wrong until after he was found guilty and had reviewed notes from an earlier intervention programme he’d done.
Sean Surgeon, who has been convicted on two separate occasions for sexual offences against three young girls in 2006, 2014 and 2017, appeared before the board earlier this month. The hearing caused outrage from the families of two of his victims who said he shouldn’t have been given a chance at parole given he had only recently been convicted for the 2014 offending and he hadn’t finished his first sentence yet. The families told the board they fear there are other victims out there. That’s based on the fact he told police about the 9-year-old victim from 2006 while being questioned in 2017 – but failed to mention he’d also offended against a young girl in 2014. There is also a suggestion in the latest Parole Board decision that the Hawkes Bay man may have offended in 2002. In the decision the board found there had not been any negative reports or misconduct from Surgeon during his time in prison and he was described in a 2018 psychological treatment report as a “motivated and engaged group member”. “However, on first assessment he had minimised responsibility for his actions. In that report Mr Surgeon disclosed previous undetected offending that took place in 2002 that was reported to the police but he denied it.–Agencies
