Real Life

Queensland sex offender who lured girl, 10, set to walk free

A woman who used her young son to lure a 10-year-old girl into her home so her husband could rape her is poised to be released from prison.

Jan-Maree Farrenkothen was jailed in 2003 after she was found to have used her son to trick the victim, who was just 10, into coming to “play” at the Gladstone house she shared with her husband Jurgen ‘Terry’ Farrenkothen.

Once the girl was inside, Jan-Maree lured her upstairs where she was handcuffed, gagged and repeatedly raped by Terry over a number of days.

Police eventually found and rescued the girl but believe the couple would have killed her if she was not discovered.

Jan-Maree, now 55, is nearing the end of her 13-year sentence and nears release, but the Attorney General is fighting to keep her locked up, or impose severe conditions on her parole.

This week, 13 years since she was put away, he was knocked back.

Peter Davis QC said: “The real issue here is whether or not there will be a relapse.”

“The personality disorder continues. It’s a question of post-release control to avoid that.”

Forensic psychiatrist Michael Beech, who examined Jan-Maree last year in April, read out his risk assessment of the sex offender in court via video link, saying she had less than a 3% chance of reoffending, and only poses a risk of her dependent personality disorder.

“She needs (people) to feel better about herself, she needs them to meet an unmet desire for love and affection,” he said.

“I think once she gets released in the community that might be aggravated by isolation, loneliness and depression.”

Dr Beech believes that if she were to reoffend, it wouldn’t be sexual but general criminal, and that it would only happen in the company of, or under coercion from, a male partner.

She could be released by the end of the year, and plans to live in Brisbane.

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