Serial sex offender gets long jail term | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

One of the city's most dangerous sex offenders will spend at least the next 10 years behind bars.

Christopher Dean Matthews, 42, was yesterday sentenced to preventive detention for attacks on a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old in September 2008 - the latest in a string of attacks he committed over 17 years.

In sentencing Matthews yesterday, Justice Christine French described the attacks on the teenagers as "absolutely terrifying."

Police have said Matthews is a serial sex offender.

His DNA linked him to the attacks on the girls. He pleaded guilty.

Matthews ran up and grabbed a 15-year-old from behind, around the neck, as she was walking along Selwyn St, in Spreydon, about 6.20pm on September 2.

He dragged her into the grounds of Christchurch South Intermediate School where he choked her and sexually assaulted her while she begged him to stop.

She was left distressed and dishevelled, with bruising and a tooth knocked out.

About two weeks later he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl at her home, strangling her until she was unconscious before assaulting her.

The mother of the 15-year-old victim said the preventive detention sentence was a relief.

"I would be happy if he never got out," she said.

"I would like to think that women can walk around this city any time of the day or night and be safe. I don't believe with him (Matthews) on the streets, that they are."

A former friend, who did not wish to be identified, said he was also glad Matthews had been jailed with preventive detention.

He said Matthews could "turn on the charm" but could also be "nasty".

The friend said Matthews hid his criminal past from him.

In 1994, Matthews was extradited from Australia for two rapes in Christchurch in 1991. He was jailed for nine years.

He attacked one of the women as she left a Sydenham night club, and the other woman in a central city car park two months later.

The former friend said when he found out about the convictions, he confronted Matthews about it, but Matthews maintained he was innocent.

In 2007 Matthews was acquitted of raping a woman in December 2006.

In that case, police said he grabbed the woman from behind as she was walking her dog in Woolston, and choked her and raped her in some bushes.

In that trial Matthews said that it was a consensual encounter that culminated in violence.

Another sexual assault complaint was laid against Matthews in 2006, but that complaint was retracted.

The friend said his story about being innocent of the 1991 rapes never added up.

"He told a very convincing story ... but there were still holes in it," he said.

He said he had found stalker-type photos on Matthew's computer about two weeks before he was arrested for the attacks on the two teenagers, which he gave to police.

The friend said he thought Matthews was guilty as soon as he was arrested. "I'm bloody happy he has been locked up," he said.

Justice French told Matthews yesterday he "posed a risk to women in almost every situation when they are alone." She said the attacks on his victims were about power and control, and they became an object for him to focus his anger on.

Psychological assessors found Matthews had a lack of insight into his offending, and transferred blame to victims.

She said Matthews showed a disturbing pattern of predatory offending, where he generally attacked from behind and used strangulation as a way of controlling his victims.

Justice French hoped the preventive detention sentence would provide an incentive for Matthews to seek treatment while in prison.

The 15-year-old's mother said the delays in getting to sentencing had been long and tough on the family. She said victims were not given enough consideration in the justice process. She said they had prepared their daughter for the possibility of appearing at a trial, only to have Matthews plead guilty days before it was set to start. He also pleaded guilty to the attack on the 13-year-old.

The 15-year-old's mother said they hoped they could now have closure and try to get back some sort of reality to their lives "and not have this hanging over us."