'No unacceptable risk': Supervision order lifted for blind witch rapist
A legally-blind witch convicted of enslaving and raping two teenage girls will be free to roam the community after a Victorian court ruling.
Robin Angus Fletcher used hypnotism and mind-altering techniques to prostitute two 15-year-old girls.
The Wiccan told them it was necessary to fulfil their destiny as "high priestesses of the dark covenant".
He pleaded guilty to one count of prostituting a child, one count of sexual penetration of a child and three of committing an indecent act with a child, and was was jailed in 1998.
Fetcher was released in May 2006, but lived under strict supervision orders.
When the orders were about to expire last year, Victorian authorities applied to renew them, but the 60-year-old successfully appealed against the application.
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The Department of Justice went to the Court of Appeal after the Supreme Court freed Fletcher from supervision in February, but their appeal was today dismissed.
Justice Phillip Priest on February 8 ruled that despite Fletcher's "repellent" offences, he did not pose, according to the law, an unacceptable risk to the community.
The Department of Justice appealed, arguing Justice Priest was "plainly wrong" in concluding there was no unacceptable risk.
The Court of Appeal found it was "well open to the judge, on the evidence before him, to reach his conclusion".
