One of Australia’s most notorious paedophiles is set to be released from jail on Tuesday.
Bradley Pen Dragon, 62, who has spent half of his life in jail, will walk out of a Western Australia prison despite believing his sexual interest in children is ‘natural’.
Dragon had been kept in custody on an interim detention order under the High Risk Serious Offenders Act until Supreme Court Justice Larissa Strk ruled on Tuesday that he could be released.
‘Having weighed all the evidence, I am satisfied that the risk that is presented by releasing the respondent on a supervision order can be reduced or guarded against to a level that is reasonably acceptable and will ensure the adequate protection of the community,’ she said .
Dragon, who spent 13 years in jail in Thailand for the ‘prolonged and depraved’ abuse of young girls, will be subject to a 10-year supervision order and will have to follow 62 strict conditions.
One of Australia’s most notorious paedophiles, Bradley Pen Dragon (pictured) has spent more than half his life in jail
The conditions include anti-libidinal and psychological treatment, verbal or written accounts of all of his movements and no unauthorised contact with anyone aged under 18.
The high-risk serious offender has a ‘long-held strong belief that sexual contact with children is a positive experience for the child’.
WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said he shared in the public’s concern ‘with a recidivist child sex offender being released into the community’ but that police would watch Dragon from the moment he stepped out of prison.
‘We will have to make sure that we monitor and we will, very very closely,’ he said earlier this month.
‘I can assure you… we are highly vigilant in our work with the high-risk serious offender groups; there are very strict conditions and we’ll be doing everything we can to protect the community. ‘
WA Premier Mark McGowan said if Dragon ‘breaches them (conditions), he’ll go back into custody… He’ll be watched like a hawk’.
State Liberal Leader David Honey said Dragon’s imminent release was ‘extremely disturbing’.
‘It is very clear that he is a long term child offender… it’s hard to see why his behavior would change given his enormous long history in this area,’ he said.
As well as 13 years in a Thai prison for sexually assaulting girls, Dragon also committed a string of other crimes including holding a knife to a woman while she was putting her child in their car.
Most recently he has been serving time for looking up child abuse material on the internet.
The WA District Court heard Dragon spent almost five hours on a public computer at a backpacker hostel in August of 2017.
Bradley Pendragon, 58, (pictured left) served 13 years in a Thai jail for sexually assaulting girls
Among the terms he searched online were ‘pre-teen porn’ and ‘child incest’. When questioned by police, Dragon denied searching the sickening material.
‘These things just keep popping up when I use the internet,’ he told officers at the time.
Judge Hylton Quail didn’t accept Dragon’s explanation for his depraved behavior, before going onto describe the offending as ‘brazen.’
‘Some of the material, albeit animated, hor is horrifying,’ he said.
The paedophile was sentenced to five years behind bars for holding a knife to a mother, before he was locked up again for looking up the child abuse material just two days after being released.
Dragon has been diagnosed with ‘paedophilic disorder’ of the non-exclusive type – meaning he is attracted to both girls and boys.
Dragon used a computer at a Northbridge backpacker hostel to access the twisted imagery
He previously told a psychiatrist that ‘much of society doesn’t agree with laws relating to the restriction of access to pornographic material about children or sexual contact with children, and much like homosexual relationships, this may be something which is legalized in the future ‘.
The 62-year-old had been waiting for a Supreme Court decision on his release date since completing his time in December, 2021.
The authorities were deciding whether Dragon is still considered ‘high risk and serious offender’, with Justice Strk saying he could be released under a strict set of conditions.
Dragon’s 10-year supervision order will also include him being electronically monitored, having to live at a specified address and being subject to a curfew.
The paedophile told the court he would be willing to undergo physical castration, but a psychiatrist said there was no clinic in Australia offered such an operation.
Notorious paedophile Bradley Dragon (pictured) is set to be released from a Western Australia jail today
WA’s Shadow Treasurer Steve Thomas said releasing Dragon was ‘absolutely worrying’ and the state government should be taking a harder stance on repeat offenders.
‘I think we’ve developed to a stage where we’re quite soft on law and order issues these days, and it’s time for a far bigger focus on holding people responsible for their behavior,’ he said.
‘I absolutely believe that a tougher on crime approach and going back to making the punishment fit the crime is where we want to see this government and this society go.’
Dragon has been provided with a private rental through a non-for-profit organization that is not linked to the State Government.