Man accused of approaching Christchurch schoolgirls to remain behind bars

4:35 pm on 25 September 2025

Leo Darin Goodwin appearing via AVL at the Christchurch District Court.

Photo: Peter Meecham/The Press

A sexual predator suspected of approaching Christchurch schoolgirls while on parole will remain behind bars.

Leo Darin Goodwin is subject to a preventive detention order for recidivist sexual violence.

The 53-year-old was recalled to prison on an interim order last month after police charged him with breaching his parole conditions by approaching teenagers under the age of 16 earlier this year.

He was granted parole in March 2023 after being jailed in 2006 for a violent sexual attack on a teenager the previous year.

Goodwin was expected to appear before the Parole Board on Thursday for a final recall hearing, however, he waived his right to appear.

The board on Thursday afternoon made a final recall order on the grounds he "poses an undue risk to the safety of the community and that he breached his release conditions".

Goodwin will be eligible for parole again at some point in the future.

He will next appear in court for breaching his parole conditions next month.

He is yet to plea to the charges.

Police earlier said girls were asked for inappropriate favours in exchange for money, and sent letters to 11 schools as part of their inquiries.

Goodwin has multiple convictions for violence and rape against women, dating back to the 1990s.

He was sentenced to preventive detention in 2006 at the High Court at Hamilton after being convicted of charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, abduction for sexual intercourse and threatening to kill a 15-year-old girl.

Goodwin's previous criminal offending was revealed at the time, including a sentence of 12 years for sexual violation by rape and three years for aggravated wounding.

In 1994 he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in Australia for threatening with a weapon with intent to have sexual intercourse. He was also sentenced for threatening to inflict actual bodily harm with an offensive weapon.

Justice Cooper said Goodwin was released on parole on 15 September 2004, but offended again three months later.

A pre-sentence report found he had a "high risk of serious violent sexual re-offending".

Justice Cooper sentenced Goodwin to preventive detention because he was satisfied that Goodwin was likely to re-offend if released.

"There is here an absence of, or failure of efforts to address the cause or causes of your offending and so in terms of all these statutory considerations, preventive detention appears to be the appropriate response," he said.

He concluded Goodwin was "likely to commit a further predatory sexual attack upon your release from a sentence of any finite term".

Police were first notified on 4 August of the man approaching school girls in the Merivale and St Albans area.

Several other approaches had since been reported.

A letter was then sent to schools in the area alerting them to the offending.

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