Rapist who attacked a Gympie woman and child freed from jail

He has been released amid an ongoing battle by the Qld Attorney-General to keep him jailed as a dangerous prisoner

Lauriston Girls and Stonnington Council battling over the location of a school crossing on Mercer Rd. Sschool wants to build a drop-off/pick-up area in grounds but needs permission to move the crossing, council and engineers won't approve it. Please get pics of general busy picking up/dropping off shenanigans, people using the crossing. Illegally parked cars less than 20m from school crossing ....Picture Norm Oorloff

A CONVICTED Gympie rapist has been released back into the community amid an ongoing battle by the Queensland Attorney-General to keep him jailed as a dangerous prisoner.

Nigel Patrick Robinson and the AG have been embroiled in a decades-long fight over his freedom following his conviction for rape and other sex crimes more than 20 years ago.

Robinson, 41, was convicted of multiple sex crimes in 1997.

In May that year, Robinson stole a knife from a Gympie shopping centre and followed a 19-year-old woman walking away from the retail hub.

Robinson was convicted of raping a woman at knifepoint in 1997.

He walked up to her from behind, put the knife to her throat – threatening to slit it – and forced her across a barbed wire fence into bushland before raping her while holding the knife to her chest.

When he was interrupted by a passer-by, she took the knife and screamed; he fled.

Six months later, while on bail for the rape, Robinson went to a Gympie Catholic Primary School where he approached a nine-year-old girl he then forced into a room.

When she screamed he covered her mouth with his hand and molested her.

He was given a nine year jail term; in 2006 the Queensland Attorney-General won an order for his detention to continue under the state’s Dangerous Prisoner sexual offenders act.

Robinson also molested a nine-year-old girl six months after the rape.

However Robinson won his release under a supervision order in 2009 – an order he allegedly breached in 2010, 2012 and 2013.

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Another breach in 2014 put him back behind bars, but he was released under supervision once more in 2015.

Robinson then breached this order in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, with the AG alleging he breached the order 45 times between October 2019 and May 2020.

The bulk of these alleged breaches were over curfew and leave passes; they were made as part of a request by the AG for another jail order under the Dangerous Prisoners Act.

Robinson had been ordered detained by the courts until the court rendered a decision, but this was overturned by the state’s Supreme Court late last month.

The hearing on this matter is expected this week.

The Queensland Attorney General has been battling to keep Robinson behind bars for the past decade, following multiple breaches of his supervision order.

However, experts disagree on the level of risk Robinson poses to the community,

An analysis by psychiatrist Dr Josephine Sundin in May said Robinson’s “principal diagnosis is Mixed Personality Disorder with anti-social, avoidant and psychopathic personality traits” and is against the setting of “a significant past history of substance abuse and past behaviour consistent with a diagnosis of sexual sadism”.

Despite the breaches, she said Robinson “has not committed a serious sexual offence since 1997”.

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“There has been some deceptiveness in his behaviour with respect to QCS (Queensland Correctional Service) staff, but this appears to have been driven by a reactive obstructiveness rather than by any more malignant sexually deviant cognitions.

“These issues of compliance will continue to be a source of difficulty for supervising case officers, but I think it is an error to confuse Mr Robinson’s anti-authoritarian and obstructive attitudes with a rising risk of sexual recidivism.”

She has recommended no extension to his supervision order.

Experts disagree over the risk Robinson now poses to the community without a supervision order in place.

Dr Scott Harden disagreed, saying Robinson’s risk of sexual offence recidivism without monitoring would be “moderate-high (above average) range compared to the

recidivism rate of sexual offenders generally”.

With a supervision order, he said this risk would drop to “moderate”.

“ I recommend an extension for approximately three years,” Dr Harden said.

“Unfortunately, he has developed such an adversarial relationship with supervising authorities that there is effectively a stand-off where he is given almost no scope for leave and then violates his conditions and monitoring.”

In outlining his reasons for releasing Robinson from custody under supervision, Judge Peter Davis said the Dangerous Prisoners act was not “intended nor designed as a protection against general offending or, for that matter, sexual offending below that of the commission of a ‘serious sexual offence’”.

Under this law, Mr Davis said it was appropriate for Robinson to be released on the terms of the supervision order pending the final outcome of the contravention proceedings.

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