NSW government goes to Supreme Court to keep child sex offender under supervision

The NSW government went to the Supreme Court seeking an order to have a serial child sex offender kept under supervision as a forensic patient.

A serial child sex offender will remain a forensic patient for at least the next 2½ years after the Supreme Court ruled he remained a high risk of reoffending.

Brendan Bragg has a long history of offending, breaching bonds and failing to comply with his reporting obligations, with the court told the heart-wrenching details of his crimes and his life.

Supreme Court Justice Mark Ierace said Bragg, 35, was highly likely to offend again if he was not subject to a forensic patient order, which allows authorities to keep him detained in a correctional centre, mental health facility or other institution.

“He poses an unacceptable risk of causing serious harm to others,” Justice Ierace said in his judgment on Thursday.

The NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday granted an extended order under which Brendan Bragg will remain a forensic patient. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Bragg was arrested and charged in 2016 with four counts of possessing, producing, or inciting to produce, child abuse material before two years later being charged with failing to comply with his reporting obligations under the Child Protection Offenders Registration Act.

The NSW District Court returned a qualified finding of guilt at a special hearing in respect of all charges and he was ordered to be detained for three years and 10 months as a forensic patient – a term that expired in May this year.

He was then subject to an interim extension order before Attorney-General Mark Speakman applied for a further five-year extension to keep him under the care of the Mental Health Review Tribunal. The extension was granted on Wednesday.

Bragg’s long history of offending, which stretched back 17 years, was laid bare by the court.

It included two incidents over 3½ weeks in 2011 during which he twice molested the same boy after breaking into the teen’s family home.

His offending included;

• In 2004 while he was 17 years old he was sentenced to a probation order for four counts of indecently assaulting an eight-year-old girl and her six-year-old brother
• October 2007 he was charged with loitering near a public place while a convicted sex offender during an incident in which he made physical contact with a young girl at a public pool. He was conditionally discharged under the Mental Health Act
• December 2010 he was again charged with loitering when he was seen by police to have an erection while watching a group of children playing sport at a public oval. He was given a two-year good behaviour bond
• In October and November 2011 he twice broke into the same home and was charged with aggravated break and enter with intent to commit a serious indictable offence when he twice touched the same 16-year-old boy who was sleeping in his bed. He escaped being sent to jail and was given a two-year good behaviour bond
• In May 2012, while on bail for the break and enter offences he was charged with loitering after he was found in the company of two children who were said to be relatives. He was dealt with under the Mental Health Act and a two-year Child Protection Prohibition Order was imposed
• In December 2015 he was charged with behaving in an offensive manner when he stood behind a woman and her daughters, aged 4 and 14, and commented he was not wearing any underwear. He was convicted and sentenced to a three-year good behaviour bond
• April 2016 he contacted a girl via Facebook and sent her a series of lewd messages

He was then charged in October 2016 with four child abuse material counts.

And due to his significant intellectual disability he was found unfit for trial and was made a forensic patient under the care of the Mental Health Review Tribunal.

The court was told that Bragg had an IQ of 52, intelligence that ranked him in the bottom 0.3 percentile of the population, he and had been diagnosed with pedophilic, alcohol abuse and paraphilic disorders.

Justice Ierace accepted the submissions of the Attorney-General that without the oversight of the Mental Health Review Tribunal Bragg was a risk of further offending and causing serious harm.

He ordered that Bragg remain a forensic patient for the next 2½ years.

“I am also satisfied that the risk cannot be managed by other less restrictive means than by him remaining as a forensic patient and thus subject to the supervision of the (Mental Health Review) Tribunal,” Justice Ierace said.