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Offender Databases Barry Woodhouse

Barry Ronald Woodhouse

Alias

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Offences

Sexual assault of a 14 year old Christchurch girl and supplying her with Temazepan (class C drug) in April 2005
Previous conviction for similar offending with a 15 year old girl

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1958

Current Location

Christchurch, under ten year supervision

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to seven years in March 2006
Sentence cut to five years in October 2006
Released under extended supervision April 2010

Background
NZ Herald story here
Appeal case is detailed here
From Christchurch Press story April 2006
Barry Ronald Woodhouse was yesterday given his second major prison term for sexual assaults on underage girls he plied with booze or drugs. In the words of Crown prosecutor Deidre Orchard, his completion of a Kia Marama programme for sex offenders during his first prison term "has not been a great success". Christchurch District Court Judge Stephen Erber noted at Woodhouse's sentencing yesterday that the 48-year-old had already served a six-year jail term for the sexual violation of a 15-year-old girl who he had plied with drink.

He then sentenced Woodhouse to a seven-year term for an indecent assault on a girl aged under 16 and for supplying her with the class C drug Temazepan. "Parliament has provided stiff penalties for persons who employ underage prostitutes in brothels. The court must act to discourage the use of them where they are free agents," the judge said. "There has been a lot of disquiet about the existence and use of underage prostitutes. I doubt it is a new phenomenon. The legalisation of prostitution has probably encouraged younger prostitutes in search of easy money."

The victim in this case was aged 14 at the time and had been working along Manchester Street as a prostitute. She and an older friend went to Woodhouse to ask if he would buy them alcohol in exchange for sex. A three-in-a-bed session followed, and both girls were badly affected by the combined effects of bourbon and drugs. One was treated at hospital, and the younger one ended up comatose at Woodhouse's lock-up garage, which had been fitted out like a bedroom. The court was told that when the girl woke next day and found she was locked inside the garage, she believed she had been anally penetrated while she was unconscious.

"He seems to have little insight into the seriousness of what he's done. "He is still not actually accepting responsibility," Orchard said. Defence counsel James Rapley said Woodhouse had an unstable life, and had difficulty reading. He asked for a shorter prison term to be imposed than the near maximum term the Crown had asked for. Judge Erber imposed five years jail for the indecent assault – described by Orchard as "about as serious as it gets" – and a further two years for supplying the drug. Woodhouse, a labourer, had been tried twice after the first jury could not agree on its verdicts apart from the drugs charge.

The second jury acquitted him on the sexual violation charge, but convicted him of the alternative indecent assault charge. This left the counsel and judge to interpret the jury's verdicts as meaning they found the girl had consented to sex but they also accepted that consent could not be used as a defence in cases of indecent assault on an underage victim. But Judge Erber said he could not accept the victim's claim that all her present problems stemmed from the offending by Woodhouse. He told Woodhouse that further offending would bring an open-ended term of preventive detention.

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Corrections and Additional Information
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