Gustafoham Harris, 49, was sentenced in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after earlier admitting two charges of breaching an extended supervision order (ESO).
The order is only imposed against the most high-risk offenders once a prison sentence has lapsed, and allows Corrections to closely monitor them in the community.
In 2021, the High Court at Invercargill ruled Harris should be under the order for the maximum period of 10 years.
On May 17, 2021, he completed his prison sentence for two charges of doing an indecent act with a boy and assaulting a child.
In 2018, Stuff reported the charges stemmed from Harris performing a sex act in front of a 7-year-old boy who was playing by a stream and doing the same in front of an 11-year-old he followed off the bus.
He was deported from Australia in 2016 after many sexual offences against children, including pushing a schoolgirl to the ground and thrusting his crotch at her.
Yesterday, the court heard that in August and October last year, Harris breached the conditions of his ESO by returning a positive urine test for amphetamine and methamphetamine.
Harris tried to say the first result was due to legal medication he had taken while he was sick.
Yesterday, counsel Brian Kilkelly explained his client had taken the drugs because he did not like where he was housed and wanted to be behind bars.
Harris told his lawyer he was going back to where he thought he should be.
"He was scared, confused, lost [and] needed a reference point," Mr Kilkelly said.
"[It] seemed that prison was his reference point."
Judge Michael Turner said the defendant remained at high risk of sexually offending against children.
"Taking mind-altering substances increases that risk."
He sentenced Harris to nine months’ imprisonment, which would see him released soon due to his time spent in custody on remand.
The defendant would remain on the ESO until May 2031.
