An advocate for survivors of sexual abuse says the decision to release a teacher convicted of having sex with students early is "utterly disgusting."
Blenheim teacher Jaimee Cooney has been released from prison after serving just 11 months of her two and a half year sentence - and receiving no treatment for her offending.
Cooney walked out of Wellington's Arohata Prison on Monday, under strict instructions not to associate with anyone under 16 who is not her family.
Victim advocate Ruth Money told Newshub the 38-year old's sentence was "woeful" to begin with and the fact she has been released so soon is "utterly disgusting".
Cooney was imprisoned in December 2019 after she was caught having sex with two of her 15-year-old students. She was also charged with two counts of exposing a young person to indecent material.
A parole board decision acknowledged that "Ms Cooney is, on the face of it, an untreated sex offender".
A psychologist who had met with Cooney while she was incarcerated told the Board she was engaging in "offence-parallelling behaviour" by inappropriately seeking validation and support from other staff.
"She acknowledges that she needs help and she has yet to undertake any rehabilitation."
However the Board said it was "conscious" that Cooney would be unlikely to get any rehabilitation in prison.
Money says this is a cop-out.
'While corrections should be providing more assistance to sex offenders - this is absolutely a cop out - she needs one-on-one assistance and that could absolutely be accessed in prison," she told Newshub.
"You have an untreated sex offender walking around in the community where she is well known and offended against multiple victims, some of who she has not been sentenced nor served time for - these poor victims are more than disgusted and they should be."
Money says if Cooney does not get the help she needs, she believes the former teacher could reoffend.
Cooney told the Board in November she accepts she needs help, and has learned she cannot rely on people who are not professionals.
She said at the time she did not think she could survive on her own, was vulnerable and sought support from her victims. She says she has changed this behaviour.
One of her parole conditions is she must attend a reintegration hui within one month of her release where she will present her safety plan to support people and a probation officer.
She will appear in court again in March 2021 to show evidence of her rehabilitation and tell the Board how she is managing her parole.
