Sex predator facing rest of life in jail

BY LYN HUMPHREYS

One of New Zealand's worst sexual predators is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

For more than 30 years, Peter Robert Jordan, 64, habitually abused troubled and vulnerable young males, many of the assaults at his halfway house in Waitara.

Yesterday, after 8 1/2 hours of deliberation over two days, the jury in the High Court in New Plymouth found Jordan had perpetrated 26 rapes and sexual assaults on three youths in his care from 1986.

The jury found him not guilty on seven similar charges. Many of the charges represent a series of similar offences.

Jordan stood impassively in the dock, his hands clasped in front of him, as the long list of charges and jury's decisions were read out to the court.

When Jordan is sentenced on April 8, he will be facing preventive detention. During sentencing for similar sex offences in 1992, the judge warned Jordan that should he re-offend he could face preventive detention, New Zealand's most severe prison term reserved for the most serious and repeat offenders.

Yesterday, Justice Geoffrey Venning called for pre-sentence and victim impact reports and a health assessment under section 88 of the Sentencing Act, "because preventive detention is a matter the court will have to consider, Mr Jordan."

Earlier in the trial, five charges, three of sexual violation and two of indecent assault, were withdrawn after a fifth complainant suffered epileptic seizures one in the witness stand which police say were caused by the stress of giving evidence.

In summing up on Monday, Crown prosecutor Justin Marinovich said Jordan had given his victims nothing but abuse at a time they needed his protection and help. He had plied them with alcohol and drugs.

Outside court, officer in charge, Detective Carole Tipler, said Jordan had scarred his victims for life with his predatory, devious offending.

The victims, who all feared for their safety, had been in hiding before the trial, she said.

He was plausible and articulate and used heavies to beat up those who crossed the line, Ms Tipler said. "He picks on the vulnerable, befriending the fatherless and making friends with their mothers."

The complainant unable to give evidence because of suffering a seizure was gutted he wasn't able to tell his story, she said.

"He's had an emotionally charged life. He was introduced to drugs by this man," she said.

Some of his victims had turned to drugs and other offending.

"They are all very fragile people but some have managed to move on."

But police believe Jordan irreparably destroyed the lives of many more young people after a lifetime of forcing sex acts on his victims. During the CIB team investigation, police officers talked to many other victims, "but they didn't want to go to court".

If Jordan hadn't been found guilty there was no doubt he would re-offend, Ms Tipler said.

"Then, in five or six years, we will be here (in court) again. He just can't help himself."

There are suspicions that Jordan began his deviant behaviour when he was just a teenager, abusing much younger children than himself. Jordan is listed on the Sensible Sentencing Trust offenders website for the indecent assault of a Waitara girl from when she was six and similar offending in 1985 and 1992.

The trust is disgusted that in October 2005, Jordan was sentenced to just one year in jail and given leave to apply for home detention.

Jordan ran a halfway house at Seymour St in Waitara and had an 0800 number so that any young charges could ring him at any time.

His male partner, Gene Paul Harford, died of a drug overdose in November 2007 when aged 28.

Jordan, who had been married and fathered children, was not without funds. It is believed his father died leaving him two farms.

He has been in custody since he was charged with the latest offences in April last year.

JORDAN'S OFFENDING:

1979: 18 months' probation for the indecent assault of an under 16-year-old male.

1984: Nine months' PD for indecent assault of an under 16-year-old boy.

1985: Three years' jail for two charges of attempted sodomy and indecencies on an under 16-year-old youth.

1992: One year's jail for two indecent assaults on a boy aged between 12 and 16.

1992: Seven years' jail for sexual violation and indecent assault of a male.

2005: One year's jail and given leave for home detention after sexual abuse of a girl aged between 12-16 in the 1980s.

 

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