Qld: Court orders measure between paedophile and school

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-2006
Qld: Court orders measure between paedophile and school

By Suzanne Klotz

BRISBANE, Aug 25 AAP - The distance between a convicted paedophile's Brisbane home
and the nearest school must be properly measured to resolve an argument over where he
can live, a court has ruled.

Eric Henri Van Dessel, 42, has been living at a unit in Vulture Street, West End, 220
metres from a childcare centre.

The Department of Corrective Services says it is only 190m from the nearby Brisbane
State High School.

Van Dessel can observe students walking to and from school from his balcony.

The conditions of a Queensland Supreme Court supervision order, granted before his
release from jail in February this year, state Van Dessel cannot come within 200m of a
school, playground or childcare centre.

Chief Justice Paul de Jersey was told during an application by Van Dessel's legal representatives
today that the Department of Corrective Services had only paced out the distance between
the school and the unit block before it ordered Van Dessel to move.

He was first ordered to move last week, and again today, and had a legal team come
to court to fight the move, on the basis that his rehabilitation would be jeopardised
if he was forced to live elsewhere.

Barrister David Shepherd for Van Dessel said his client was employed as a caretaker
at the unit block which had about 20 residents, his rehabilitation was going well and
he did not want to move.

Justice de Jersey was surprised no one had bothered to properly measure the distance.

"An extraordinary feature of the present imbroglio is the distance has not been reliably
measured ... I find it surprising," he said.

The chief justice ordered that the distance be measured, between property lines, suggesting
that be done either today or tomorrow.

He ordered that Van Dessel be able to continue living at the unit, pending the definitive
determination of the distance.

If the distance does measure less than 200 metres, Van Dessel will have to make an
application to the Supreme Court to allow him to continue to live there.

Van Dessel was sentenced in Cairns in July 2004 to two-and-a-half years' jail for indecent
treatment of a child under 12 under his care.

He was convicted of similar offences in 1989 in Mount Isa and in 2001 in Townsville
and sentenced to probation and jail terms respectively.

The Supreme Court was previously told he may re-offend and his behaviour was "entrenched
and would last into advanced age".

AAP smk/sc/evt/bwl

KEYWORD: VANDESSEL

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