Illawarra victims of convicted paedophile James Cameron Wood are furious he was set free from jail without any warning.
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Corrective Services NSW confirmed Wood was released on supervised parole on August 12 “under standard NSW parole conditions”.
However parents of the victims were only notified on Tuesday afternoon - four days after he became a free man.
On the same day one of the victim’s mothers had written to Corrective Service Commissioner Peter Severin and Minister for Corrections David Elliott about the impending “public parole hearing” she’d been told was scheduled for September 1.
She was furious to learn Wood had already been released.
He will be subject to parole supervision until May 22, 2019.
In her letter to the relevant authorities, the mother said Wood’s pending release and the custodial arrangements that would be in place “cause us grave concerns, especially when it has been outlined by the correctional services that further physiological assessment and counseling must continue. Why on Earth would correctional services consider releasing someone that requires this?
“Can you give the victims and the community 100 per cent assurance that he will never do this again?
“If this assurance cannot be given, which we all know it can't, why do you consider even allowing this vile predator back into the community and risk innocent children and their families by having them live quietly next door unaware?”
A spokesman for Corrective Services said Wood was released and ‘’additional conditions were imposed’’ including: that he undertake psychological assessment and counselling as directed; not contact or communicate with victims and victims’ families; and not frequent the local government areas of Kiama, Wollongong, Shoalhaven, Shellharbour and Nowra.
Victims were able to make written submissions, ‘’but not oral submissions in this instance’’, the spokesman said.
A written submission was provided to the State Parole Authority and taken into account during a private hearing, which led to the additional conditions.
SPA stood the matter over to a public hearing on September 1 to consider any other possible submissions. ‘’As no further submissions were made, SPA confirmed the decision to grant parole.’’
The spokesman said Corrective Services recognises the need for victims of crime to be kept informed of the progress of an offender through the criminal justice system and takes the concerns of all victims very seriously.
‘’A victim may inquire at any time regarding the location of an offender in custody.’’
Wood served a three-year, nine-month non-parole period - due to expire in August 2015 - for offences in the Illawarra region.
He confessed in 2011 to sexually assaulting the three males, all aged under 16 at the time.
Although his two most serious charges carried maximum terms of 20 years in jail and a non-parole period of 10 years, his sentences were combined.
The mothers of two of the victims revealed their husbands had been childhood friends with Wood - who then naturally became a trusted part of their family lives.
During sentencing, the court heard 38-year-old Wood had crept into one of the boy's bedrooms when the boy was 12 years old and started touching him when he was asleep.
A few years later, there was another incident at a caravan park in Merry Beach.
That victim, now aged 25, said he felt like he had a disease eating away at him from the inside since the abuse.