Notorious paedophile Bradley Pen Dragon is back before the courts over two more alleged breaches of his strict release conditions – one of which involved donations to charity Save the Children.
Dragon was released back into the community in June 2022 after spending half his life behind bars, including 13 years in a Thai prison for raping young girls in the 1990s.
Notorious Perth paedophile Bradley Pen Dragon is back before the courts.Credit: 9News Perth
There are 62 conditions of his release as a high-risk serious offender. In April this year, he was arrested again after he allegedly contravened them twice.
Police allege that, during a home visit, the 64-year-old was found to be in possession of a booklet which contained two images of children.
Dragon said the booklet, which police claim was found on a coffee table in his living room, was handed to him by a neighbour.
One of the images was of five children in some sort of uniform, and another showed one child.
The second breach related to a monthly donation Dragon was making to Save the Children, an international charity organisation which aims to improve the lives of children worldwide.
During a bail application in Perth Magistrates Court on Monday, police prosecutors said Dragon had set up monthly automatic payments to the charity from his bank account.
His lawyer, David McKenzie, told the court Save the Children was not sending Dragon any materials as a regular donor.
“He was just donating to the charity,” McKenzie said.
“The breach is that he didn’t stop the payments.”
Dragon has pleaded not guilty to both charges of breaching a supervision order and is taking the matter to trial next year.
The court also heard on Monday that Dragon had breached the conditions of his supervision order seven times since his release from prison in 2022.
Last year, he was locked up for four weeks after a compliance check found him in possession of a DVD that depicted partially clothed children on its cover.
While Dragon was given permission to have the DVD, an A4 photocopy he made of the cover led to him breaching his order and landed him back behind bars.
He was given a suspended fine for the breach and told he wouldn’t have to pay it if he did not offend in the following six months.
Dragon was released again on bail on Monday. The court was told his trial over the recent alleged breaches could be as far off as the middle of next year, as a witness was unable to give evidence until then.
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