When assessing whether a breach of a supervision order under the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 (Qld) warrants a continuing detention order, the court must carefully consider the nature and circumstances of the breach, including the offender's purpose, the company they were in, the openness of their conduct, and whether the breach was consistent with their known offending pattern. A breach that does not give the offender the opportunity to engage in their established modus operandi may be characterised as 'relatively minor' even where the offender has a serious history of sexual offending. International treaty obligations under the ICCPR cannot override the clear and unambiguous requirements of the Act, but the importance of liberty at common law and under international law is a factor relevant to the exercise of discretions under the Act, already captured by the Francis principle that supervised release should be preferred to continuing detention where adequate community protection can be ensured.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 16 later cases that cite this judgment.
1 of the 16 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.