A serial sex offender is set to be released from jail within a week following a successful appeal to the High Court.
Jacob Arthur Wichen will be released on Wednesday, April 12, after spending more than 20 years behind bars for breaking into a 65-year-old woman's house in Port Augusta and attempting to rape her in 2002.
South Australia's Chief Justice Chris Kourakis today declared that Wichen would be released next week.
"This may be the last time we meet before your release," Justice Kourakis told Wichen, who appeared by video link.
"I hope it's the last time we meet in court at all for that matter."
Wichen was sentenced to 10 years' jail in 2005 but in 2011, he was declared incapable of controlling his sexual instincts and detained indefinitely.
Wichen lost an application to South Australia's Court of Appeal to be released in 2021, but in July last year, the High Court sent the bid back to the state Supreme Court for a new decision.
The High Court found the state court should have taken into account the conditions Wichen would be subject to on release as affecting his willingness to control his sexual instincts.
In a judgement published at the end of last year, Justice Kourakis granted Wichen's application to be released.
Justice Kourakis found there was "not a significant risk that the applicant will fail to exercise appropriate control of his sexual instincts if released on the proposed licence conditions, despite the risk that the applicant will not abide by all of the conditions of his release at all times".
In addition to the 2002 crime, Wichen also committed assault with intent to rape in 1991, at Port Augusta and was found guilty of attempt to rape and unlawful imprisonment in the same town in 1993, four weeks after being released on parole.
He was jailed again after being convicted of assault with intent to rape and robbery with violence in Port Lincoln in 1997.
Justice Kourakis published a list of proposed conditions that matched one from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The DPP had also suggested that Wichen should not take any illegal drug or unprescribed medication.
The 24 conditions listed in court include that Wichen not commit any crimes, that he not travel interstate without permission, that he wear a GPS tracking device and that he reside at the address nominated by the Parole Board.
The conditions also require that Wichen not drink alcohol nor enter licensed premises and that he follow various directions from a community corrections officer.
