Christchurch sex offender Matthew Kelly recalled to prison after watching Sia music videos featuring children

WARNING: This story contains details of child sexual abuse.

A sex offender who raped a teenager in a park and paid another woman to video herself abusing an infant has been recalled to prison after watching music videos featuring children and conspiring with another sexual predator.

Matthew Kelly was released on parole in May last year after being imprisoned in 2016 following a police raid on his home that uncovered a raft of objectionable photos and videos involving children, and one video involving a dog.

Less than four months after being released from prison, Kelly's computer was examined and he was found to have been watching music videos of the artist Sia, which featured young children dancing.

A further search of his home revealed a photo of a young child together with letters from another child sex offender who is currently at Otago Corrections Facility on preventive detention.

Kelly had been having phone conversations with the offender, which revealed a collusion between the pair to deceive the Parole Board about the origin of the photo in his possession.

As a result, Kelly was recalled to prison in September last year.

Yesterday, he had a scheduled hearing before the New Zealand Parole Board, during which he admitted to struggling after his release and not reaching out to his support for help.

"I was struggling. I'd gone down my old pathways," he said.

"I didn't want to let family and my support people down. I thought it was going to be one of these phases and it would die off again."

Kelly suggested to the board he would likely have to stay in prison for another year, until he had completed a child sex offender programme.

His prediction was in line with the board's decision, which was to decline his parole and to meet with him again in 18 months, once he had completed the programme.

'I was hiding it from people'

Kelly was originally sent to prison in 2016 after he was found with objectionable material on his cellphone and laptop.

He had 70 images he had taken of himself wearing only a nappy, as well as eight images involving animals, children and adults.

Kelly pleaded guilty to 16 charges, including one of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, five of making an objectionable publication, and 10 of possession of an objectionable publication.

The charges included offending from 2014, when in February of that year, he offered money to two women to have time alone with their young daughters, both aged under five. Kelly described the sex acts he wanted to perform.

Then, in August of that year, he contacted a 24-year-old Auckland woman and asked her to send him photos of naked children. He also encouraged her to make a video of her performing a sex act on a child for $300.

Then in January 2019, while in prison for the earlier offending, Kelly was sentenced to a further seven-and-a-half-years after being found guilty of rape, attempted sexual violation and indecent assault involving two victims aged 13 and 14.

The older of the two had been raped by Kelly in a park beside a church.

Kelly's total jail time across the two sets of charges was 12-and-a-half years, meaning without parole he would not be released until 2028.

However, he first became eligible for parole in 2018 and went on to be denied release on four occasions.

He was paroled last year despite a psychological report noting his risk of sexual reoffending remained "above average", although there had been a reduction in this score since the last assessment.

At yesterday's parole hearing, Kelly was asked what he would do differently if he were to be released on parole again.

"Be more honest with my support people," he said. "I was hiding it from people... I was using negative and deviant thinking to come back to my emotions."

Kelly said there was no justification for breaching his parole conditions and that he had taken full accountability for his actions.

He told the board last year when he was recalled that he'd made poor decisions, had fallen back into his old coping mechanisms, and "went on autopilot to make himself feel better".

The board found that he'd denied colluding with the other sex offender but admitted to it after reading the transcript of calls between them.

"What happened for Kelly on parole is highly concerning given the nature of his offending and the treatment that he has completed previously," the board said at the time.

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* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.