Robert Newland: Convicted child sex offender to remain behind bars after second detention order review

A convicted child sex offender is set to remain behind bars after the Supreme Court judge that made the 2018 order to keep him behind bars indefinitely deemed him to still be a high-risk serious offender. Robert Bruce Newland, 60, appeared before the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Monday where a second review of his continuing detention order was undertaken, more than two years after the order was first reviewed. Originally from Bunbury, Newland had been convicted of sexual offending against 10 children, most of them under 10 years of age, in Perth between 1978 and 1997. Newland has not tasted freedom since 1998. As a teenager, he was cautioned but not convicted of sexually interfering with a four-year-old girl and three five-year-old boys. But in his 20s he was convicted and jailed for sexually abusing five children — a 10-year-old boy he attempted to lure into a toilet after standing behind him on an escalator, a three-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl who he took from a park and abused in his car and later at his home, a five-year-old boy he lured into a swimming pool toilet cubicle and another five-year-old boy who was waiting for his mum at a park who he lured into his car and drove to a motel. Newland later left the five-year-old boy naked on the side of the road. After an initial seven-year stint in prison, Newland was released on parole but later sexually abused a seven-year-old boy in a fast food toilet in 1997. In 1998 he was jailed for that offence and an order was made for him to be detained indefinitely, ‘at the Governor’s pleasure’. Despite initially having the indefinite detention order thrown out after he successfully appealed two of his convictions in 2018, State prosecutors applied for Newland to be kept behind bars indefinitely under the Dangerous Sex Offenders Act, which was granted by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Hall later that year. Although the Dangerous Sex Offenders Act had since been repealed, the effect of the order was preserved by the High Risk Serious Offenders Act, which came into force in August 2020. In his findings, Justice Hall found Newland to still be a high-risk serious offender and the level of risk had not significantly changed since the last review. Justice Hall noted that Newland’s risk of reoffending would be difficult to manage due to his past offending’s opportunistic and unpredictable nature. Although he accepted psychological evidence suggesting Newland remain under 24/7 supervision or obey a 12-hour night-time curfew with GPS tracking, Justice Hall found there was not enough appropriate funding to be able to provide the level of supervision required.