Chief Justice Chris Kourakis warns courts can’t detain sex offenders if psychiatric reports are repeatedly delayed

Courts won’t be able to detain possible high-risk sex offenders if psychiatric reports assessing their suitability for release are repeatedly delayed, chief justice Chris Kourakis has warned.

Chief Justice Chris Kourakis said ongoing detention without the psychiatric reports was an “unnecessary denial of a defendant’s personal liberty” and made the court an “instrument of executive oppression”.

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Judges will be unable to detain possible high-risk sex offenders if psychiatric reports assessing their suitability for release are repeatedly delayed, South Australia’s chief justice has warned.

In detaining a repeat sex offender only two days before he was scheduled to be released, Chief Justice Chris Kourakis said ongoing detention without the psychiatric reports was an “unnecessary denial of a defendant’s personal liberty” and made the court an “instrument of executive oppression”.

Chief Justice Kourakis said that if Forensic Mental Health Services continued to receive “insufficient funds” the court would be forced to take the delays into consideration and refuse applications to hold sex offenders in temporary detention while the overdue reports were completed.

This may result in “the Court declining to make an interim detention order if the risk to the community is not high”.

Attorney-General Vickie Chapman

SA Law Society president Amy Nikolovski

The warning has prompted Attorney-General Vickie Chapman to increase payments to forensic psychiatrists willing to interview and complete reports on high-risk sex offenders.

“In South Australia there is a small pool of forensic psychiatrists who specialise in criminal matters and are qualified to undertake these forensic assessments for the courts,” Ms Chapman told The Advertiser.

“Psychiatrists currently balance these assessments with their full-time clinical workload, which can sometimes result in delays while these assessments are prepared for the court.” She said she was implementing a range of measures to streamline the forensic psychiatric assessment process to ensure courts were provided with more timely expert advice to “assist them in these cases.”

Ms Chapman last week announced that more mental health experts, including psychologists, would be able to provide expert reports to the court.

However, broadening the pool will not solve the problem, according to SA Law Society president Amy Nikolovski, due to the complexity and high stakes of forensically assessing inmates. “If lesser-qualified persons are able to perform assessments and prepare reports, there needs to be appropriate safeguards in place to protect the integrity of the reports.

“Ideally, there would be more suitably qualified medical practitioners, such as psychiatrists with relevant forensic experience, available to perform risk assessments with the support of other professionals such as psychologists.”

A photo of Colin Humphrys dated January 1995. Picture: Supplied by police

The commitment to extra funding and resources came after delays in a critical psychiatric report almost led to the release of serial sex predator and kidnapper Colin Humphrys into the Bowden-Brompton area.

Chief Justice Kourakis voiced his concerns about psychiatric report delays while making an order to temporarily detain repeat child-sex offender Gary John Tipping.

Tipping was two days from being released from a six-year and four-month sentence for indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2012.

Before that offence, Tipping had indecently assaulted three other boys, between the ages of eight and 13, all within months of being released from prison.

The court heard that while one report had been finished, a second report from Forensic Mental Health Services was three months away from being completed. Chief Justice Kourakis ordered Tipping be held in temporary detention for a further three months.