New Zealand Parole Board -

There is an order prohibiting publication of the name, address and occupation or identifying particulars of the victim

Parole Hearing

Under section 21(2) of the Parole Act 2002

Joseph Warren LEPPER

Hearing: Monday 17 July 2023

at Otago Correctional Facility via MS Teams

Members of the Board:

Sir R Young – Chairperson

Mr A Hackney

Mr C King

Prof P Brinded

Counsel: Mr S Fraser

In Attendance: [withheld] – Case Manager

Support Persons: [withheld]

DECISION OF THE BOARD

1. Mr Lepper, who is 46 years of age, was sentenced to preventive detention in 2014 for abduction of a woman for unlawful sex. The woman was over 16 years of age. He has a very long history of violent and property offending and earlier sexual offending. He was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for rape and unlawful sexual connection in 2002 and released not long before the current offending. His RoC*RoI is .81 and his ASRS is 2.
2. We last saw him in April 2022. At that stage he had completed the Drug Treatment Programme and was to do the Adult Sex Offender Treatment Programme. There was some concern about his conduct, but the Board noted shortly before its last hearing his conduct had improved. That programme it was hoped would finish in April 2023. [withheld]
3. As to the current position, Mr Lepper has not started the Adult Sex Offender Treatment Programme. It seems that initially he could not get on the programme because of a clash with another offender. Then he could not get on the programme in mid-2022 because he was on high security classification and effectively has been on high, preventing him progressing since that time.
4. Mr Lepper gave us a history of what he saw was his unfair treatment by Corrections, including unfair misconduct charges, abuse by other prisoners that was not dealt with by Corrections, and abuse by prison officers. As we said to him, we were not in a position to resolve those issues, but he also accepted that part of the reason for his high security classification was his own poor conduct, outlined in both the Parole Assessment Report and the psychological report.  And so, we challenged him to improve that behaviour.
5. His PCO, who was a new PCO, said that if there were complaints, he would thoroughly investigate them.
6. The prison notes have Mr Lepper as demanding, verbally aggressive and somewhat unpredictable. A reduction in his security classification at his next review in August was seen as unlikely. And so, it was agreed that Mr Lepper would work on his own behaviour, try and keep out of trouble and that by the end of 2023 it was hoped that if he had spent some time working with a psychologist that Corrections could look at an early reduction in his high security classification, which would also facilitate his undertaking the Adult Sex Offender Treatment Programme. And so, that is the challenge for Mr Lepper.
7. He is assessed at being above average risk of sexual re‑offending. [withheld]
8. And so, we hope that he can, therefore, start the Adult Sex Offender Treatment Programme some time during 2024. We will see him again by the middle of 2025, just under two years, by the end of June that year, with the hope that he has been able to make progress.
9. [withheld].