Canberra rapist Saeed Haddara, AKA ‘Zain Haddara’, granted parole despite being branded a ‘high risk’
An armed rapist and child sex offender who has been branded a “high risk” of committing more sex crimes has been rubber-stamped for release at a secret parole hearing.
Canberra Star
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An armed rapist and child sex offender who has been branded a “high risk” of committing more sex crimes will be back on the street within weeks after the ACT’s secretive parole authorities rubber-stamped his release.
Saeed Haddara, also known as Zain Haddara, will be released from Canberra’s notoriously violent prison, the Alexander Maconochie Centre despite having not completed a basic course for sex offenders, prison sources confirmed.
It was unclear why Haddara did not complete the short rehabilitation course, which has since been halted because of restrictions on group gatherings in the jail as part of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Justice David Mossop in 2017 jailed Haddara for more than five years, with a two year, eight month and two week non-parole period.
Justice Mossop described Haddara’s string of child sex offending, child pornography, gunpoint rape, assault and harassment charges as showing his “predisposition to violent, threatening and controlling behaviours”.
Haddara, then 19, had also shown a “pattern of controlling behaviour” toward the underage girl he had sex with, including by smashing her iPhone and throwing a knife at her.
A court-appointed expert in 2018 found Haddara was a “high risk” of committing more sex crimes once released, and that he posed an higher risk of reoffending if released to live in Canberra than if he was sent to live with one of his brothers in Melbourne.
His group of friends in Canberra, the court heard, were “anti-social”.
Haddara’s vile crimes include him raping a woman at gunpoint and saying he would insert the gun into her anus if she resisted him anally rape her.
“If it’s not the gun, it’s me,” Haddara said.
He also filmed himself receiving oral sex from an underage girl, telling her: “Deeper you dickhead”.
Haddara’s upcoming release means he will serve just over the bare minimum non-parole period, after the secretive Sentence Administration Board approved his release at a recent hearing that was closed to the public.
A spokeswoman from the Justice and Community Services Directorate, which includes the Sentence Administration Board, the prison and parole supervisors, did not respond to questions by deadline, but did not deny that Haddara had failed to complete the sex offender’s course.
The spokeswoman said she would need to get Haddara’s permission to respond to questions about his upcoming release.
Haddara, a former steroid-abusing bodybuilder, has been assaulted in jail at least twice.