Child predator reoffends post-bail release, leading to new arrest

A serial child rapist has been taken back into custody only days after he was controversially allowed to walk free from a South Australian prison.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been granted release ahead of a sentencing hearing in Canberra for a separate offence, only for ACT police to arrest him over a text message sent to his victim.

Mike Worsman, who was repeatedly raped by the man as a 12-year-old, attended the Canberra court where the offender is being sentenced, urging the judge to jail him.

“The impact of (his) freedom… is that I, and my family, will never feel safe,” Worsman told the court. 

“It terrifies me to think what he might do to my children if he ever found us.”

“The only justice that’s still available to me as someone that’s already been raped is that I’m able to keep the rest of the community safe from this monster,” Worsman added outside court.

The case was adjourned, with the man scheduled to learn his sentence on Thursday. 

Despite initially being granted bail, the man was arrested during a mandatory check-in at a police station. 

Officers allege he violated an intervention order by sending a text message to Worsman last week.

The arrest came four days after the text message was first reported to South Australian police, with Worsman questioning why it took so long.

“The victim voice is something I see as being disregarded throughout the system,” he said.

Worsman had previously campaigned to keep the man in prison after he completed a five-year prison sentence in South Australia for raping another child. 

The man had been permitted to travel unaccompanied to Canberra and was subsequently granted bail pending sentencing.