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Offender Databases Morrison Retimana

Morrison Hubert Retimana

Alias

Michael Morrison Herbert Retimana

Offences

Unlawful detention and sexual assault of a 16 year old Invercargill girl in October 2003
Attempted to sexually assault a 17 year Christchurch schoolgirl in September 2002
Assaulted a young Christchurch woman at a bus stop in November 2001
Rape and grevious bodily harm of a 17 year old Auckland woman in November 1987
138 convictions including rape and aggravated robbery etc

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1955

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to preventive detention with a 5 year minimum non-parole period in February 2004
To be updated

Background
From the Southland Times 21/02/2004
A man who described himself to psychiatrists as a time bomb, safer in prison than in the community, was this week jailed indefinitely. It's a sentence that legislation did not allow 15 years ago when a High Court judge first considered it appropriate. The Southland Times backgrounds his lifetime of offending and its ultimate conclusion.MORRISON Hubert Retimana (also known as Michael Morrison Herbert Retimana and other variations of those names) was sentenced in the High Court at Invercargill on Thursday to preventive detention for detaining and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in Invercargill on October 4. Preventive detention is effectively a life sentence. It is an indeterminate sentence for offenders over 18 classified as dangerous. Justice Fogarty ordered Retimana not be eligible for parole for five years.

Sadly, the sentence comes more than 15 years after Justice Cooke, in the Court of Appeal, first considered Retimana a candidate for preventive detention but was prevented by legislation from imposing it. Retimana is 48 years old with a long history of offending that has landed him in jail more than 23 times. He has appeared in court 48 times and has 138 convictions ranging from theft and fraud, to aggravated robbery, to rape. It was his gatecrashing of an Auckland party in the early hours of Saturday, November 21, 1987, that unveiled his darkest side - an ability to become a sexual attacker. He approached a 17-year-old girl, standing in the driveway of the address, grabbed her around the neck and pulled her towards some bushes. As she struggled and screamed he hit her over the head with a beer bottle five or six times, knocking her semi-unconscious. He then removed her lower clothing and raped her.

At the time of the rape Retimana was 33 years old. He had regularly appeared before the courts since the age of 14 and had amassed a long list of convictions, although none previously for sexual offences. He had spent the previous 17 years mainly in prison or in psychiatric or other hospitals or institutions. This was coupled with a long history of drug and alcohol abuse. He was under the influence of a mixture of substances at the time of the rape. He was also on parole at the time following a jail sentence for aggravated robbery and other offences. His recall had just been made because his probation officer was concerned at his violent temper and unco-operative attitude and there was concern for public safety. Retimana had even described himself to one of the psychiatrists as a time bomb, safer in prison than in the community. A High Court judge sentenced him to four and a half years' jail. The maximum sentence for rape at the time was 14 years.

An Appeal Court decision by Justice Cooke in October 1988 described the sentence as "manifestly inadequate." The question was what to put in its place. "Under the legislation this man is not eligible for preventive detention, though the psychiatric reports would seem to indicate this might be the safest course in the interests of the public," Justice Cooke says. The courts had seen a series of psychiatric reports on Retimana. He had been diagnosed as a true psychopathic personality, medically insane though not insane in the legal sense. "He has suicidal tendencies and makes threats of killing others, But it seems that this disorder is not specifically sex-directed. He has engaged in self-mutilation. He may well have organic brain deterioration as a result of drug and alcohol abuse," Justice Cooke's written judgment says.

The severe personality disorder he suffered from was said to be "basically untreatable." In the absence of preventive detention as an option, Justice Cooke says it was a difficult sentencing case, "but one in which the protection of the public has to be a major factor." He granted the Solicitor-General's application for leave to appeal and increased the sentence to nine years' jail. "A term somewhat longer than would ordinarily be appropriate has been fixed because of the special danger to the public, which this unfortunate man constitutes at this stage of his life." On his release from jail Retimana began offending again almost immediately. In May 2001 he was sentenced to four months' jail followed by supervision for a year on three counts of obtaining credit by fraud, two of theft and breaching bail in Christchurch .

By November he was in court again for gratuitously bashing a young woman at a bus stop -- after first starting an argument with the group she was in. He'd asked one of the group for a smoke, and when they could not give him one he started verbally abusing them. He then chased one of the women to a bus shelter and punched her in the mouth three times. In a separate incident Retimana had been warned away from a Sydenham pre-school centre, but had later entered on the pretext he wanted to enrol his 1-year-old triplets in the creche. He admitted charges of male assaults female, breaching periodic detention and trespass and was sentenced to 11 months' jail. On September 15, 2002, he was in the grounds of Christchurch 's Cashmere High School where he approached a 17-year-old girl sitting outside the school building. He made sexually suggestive comments to her and grabbed her arms to prevent her leaving. He then pulled her towards him saying he wanted to give her a hongi. She was released, frightened but unhurt, only when others approached the scene.

In June last year Retimana was in court again, this time in Dunedin where he was jailed for two months for stealing a wallet, stealing a car and disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence. By October he was in Invercargill where approached a 16-year-old girl at a bus stop, began talking about his two daughters to gain her trust, shared a cigarette, then made advances towards her. As she tried to get away, he clutched her hand, leading her into an alley where he pinned her against the wall and indecently assaulted her. At his sentencing this week for this incident and that at Cashmere High School , Justice Fogarty backgrounded Retimana's extensive drug and alcohol abuse that stemmed from when he began drinking at a young age, "possibly with the encouragement of his parents." Retimana had attended three alcohol treatment programmes but had resumed drinking either while still in the programme or shortly after, Justice Fogarty said.

Retimana believed he had schizophrenia and had been diagnosed as such by some clinicians, he said. However, the latest diagnosis was that Retimana had an anti-social personality disorder. "In another age you would probably be placed or contained in an asylum as you are barely capable of looking after yourself and as a protection for society," Justice Fogarty told him on Thursday. Retimana had contact with mental health services in Invercargill last year when he went through a "psychological crisis," Justice Fogarty said. "I do not know whether you approached the mental health services or how you came into contact with them but it would appear you still remained on the streets." Before that Retimana spent time in Oakley and Carrington mental hospitals but would release himself, breaching conditions of his supervision.

Whatever Retimana is, clinicians say he is not a sexual predator. "Both the offence in 1998, 16 years ago, and the one in 2001 appear not to have be planned but you're opportunistic and the opportunity was there. "Unfortunately for society, in your present mental condition you are likely to offend again." Justice Fogarty said the reason for a five-year non-parole period was so that Retimana would quickly get the treatment he needed and also give him the hope that one day he may return into the community a rehabilitated man. Reports from the professionals say with treatment in alcohol and drug abuse and completing a sex offender's rehabilitation programme Retimana could be released. "Your release is entirely at the discretion of the Parole Board. They have to be satisfied that you will not pose an undue risk to the safety of the community or any person."

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Corrections and Additional Information
We endeavour to make this database as accurate as possible, but we are at the mercy of whatever information we can find in various online and offline archives. We rely on the public - that is, people like you - to fill in the gaps that we cannot. If you wish to submit additional information or a correction to this file CLICK HERE . Privacy: Trust policy is that all sources are treated as strictly confidential unless we are explicitly told otherwise. If you wish to see a file removed from this database certain conditions must be met by the offender set out HERE Note that this does NOT apply for those that are the primary offender in a murder, rape, or any sexual offending involving minors. We do not enter into correspondence regarding the guilt/innocence of offenders. Such correspondence is not responded to, especially if the offender concerned has a number of prior convictions

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