Serial child sex predator Daryl Hore wins five-year fight for freedom, will be released from prison

A serial SA child sex offender has won a five-year court fight for freedom, and will be released back into the community.

Serial child sex predator Daryl Martin Hore has won his five-year fight to be released into the community.

The Supreme Court has ruled Hore is willing to control his sexual instincts – provided he is subject to more than 30 stringent release conditions.

Hore, 45, who is being held in Mt Gambier Prison, is likely to be released into the community later this year when suitable accommodation is located.

He is the second serial sex offender to be released on licence following a ruling by the High Court last June that overturned rulings by SA’s Court of Appeal. The first, Jacob Arthur Wiche, was released in April after the Supreme Court reconsidered his application for release.

In Supreme Court hearings considering Hore’s application for release on licence and in two psychiatric reports it was revealed he had been prescribed anti-libidinal medication since 2021 that had reduced his “bad thoughts’’ concerning young boys and his risk of reoffending.

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Hore was first arrested in 2003 after indecently assaulting a boy, 10. He was convicted in 2007 and given a two-year suspended prison sentence. While he was awaiting trial for the 2003 offending, Hore offended against another boy, 10, and was convicted and given a two-year and six-month sentence.

When he was released from prison in 2013 he contravened his sex offender register provisions by moving in with a woman who had young children. When his computer was searched by police they found it contained almost 500 items of child exploitation material. He was convicted and sentenced to another 16 months in prison.

It was towards the end of that sentence in 2016 the Attorney-General applied to the court and obtained an order he be detained until further order. Hore applied for release on licence in 2018 but this was refused by the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.

In her judgment Justice Judy Hughes states there is no evidence Hore is incapable of controlling his sexual instincts and the “only question is whether he is willing to control his sexual instincts’’.

“The court may be satisfied that Mr Hore is “willing” to control his sexual instincts where there is not a significant risk that he would, given an opportunity to commit a relevant offence, fail to exercise appropriate control of his sexual instincts,’’ Justice Hughes states.

“The Court is not obliged to reach a state of satisfaction about that proposition by excluding from consideration the likely effect of conditions of licence upon Mr Hore’s willingness to exercise appropriate self-control.

“As to willingness, the oral evidence from Drs Nambiar and Furst on the remitted hearing was clear. With the imposition of a suite of suitable conditions, the risk that Mr Hore would, given an opportunity to commit a relevant offence, fail to exercise appropriate control of his sexual instincts, is low.’’

Justice Hughes concluded in having regard to the whole of the evidence she is satisfied Hore is willing to control his sexual instincts for the purpose of his release on licence subject to conditions.

“Critical to this conclusion is the evidence of the effect of the anti-libidinal medication upon him and the ability to condition his release upon continued administration of that medication, and the further constraints on his ability to reoffend that will be achieved by the imposition of the proposed conditions,’’ she states.

The case will return to the Supreme Court later this year to finalise Hore’s release conditions, approve his accommodation and set a date for his release.