Paedophile Neil Duncan ‘no demonstrated risk to other children,’ says judge

As the government races to close the loophole of convicted paedophiles and sex offenders getting bail pending their sentence, Judge Robyn Tupman’s reasons for bailing pony club paedophile Neil Duncan have been released by the District Court.

The judge who granted bail to convicted paedophile Neil Duncan said the “mere” fact he had been convicted was no reason to lock him up until he had been sentenced, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

As the government races to close the loophole of convicted paedophiles and sex offenders getting bail pending their sentence, judge Robyn Tupman’s reasons for bailing Duncan have been released by the ­District Court.

His release on bail had been opposed by the prosecution but Judge Tupman said there was no reason to find he would not turn up at court after his conviction because he was no more a “flight risk” than he had been during the previous two years he had been on bail awaiting trial, in which he had pleaded not guilty.

The judge said the victims in the case, who she referred to as “complainants”, were in no ­danger because the former south coast pony club president had moved from his Bega home to Tamworth, where he was back in court on Monday after being arrested for breaching bail after attending a kids’ gymkhana at Narrabri without a court-ordered family member accompanying him.

Neil Duncan, who is facing child sex charges involving five alleged female victims. Picture: Facebook

“There is no demonstrated risk to any other children,” the judge said when she granted him bail at Queanbeyan District Court on June 2.

Duncan, 67, had been convicted by a jury of eight counts of sexually touching girls aged between 10 and 16 in 2018 and 2020.

Judge Robyn Tupman.

Paedophile Robert Van Gestel. Picture: AAP

“In my view the evidence to support the detention application (by the prosecution) is merely that he has now been convicted, which is said to ­increase his flight risk, which as a matter of general logic and principle is correct, but in this case it is not a significant ­reality or at least not one that cannot be alleviated or obviated by the appropriate conditions,” Judge Tupman said.

The judge said there was a “very high likelihood, if not inevitability, that there will be a term of imprisonment” when she sentences him on August 5.

His bail conditions include reporting to police once a week and he cannot leave his family’s sprawling horse stud at Timbumburi, near Tamworth, except in the company of a family member. He was not with the family member at the weekend’s pony club event.

His bail was continued on Monday in Tamworth Local Court.

It was as a result of The Daily Telegraph revealing that Duncan and another paedophile, Robert Van Gestel, had been granted bail after being convicted of serious offences that Attorney-General Mark Speakman this week pledged he would have tough new laws before cabinet by next month.

Mr Speakman said the reforms were “triggered by the events of the last week”