Regan Philip Burrell, photographed when he was sentenced in 2019 for sex offences against three young girls. Photo / Otago Daily Times

WARNING: This story deals with sexual offending against young teenage girls and may be upsetting for some people.

A sexual predator and blackmailer who preyed on young girls, then threw boiling water at a fellow inmate while in prison, will remain under close supervision in the community until atleast 2028.

Regan Philip Burrell received his first convictions for sex offending in 2017, when he was 16 years old.

He now has convictions for offending against three girls, including counts of sexual connection with a female between 12 and 16, indecent assaults, and indecent communications with a young person under 16.

He first made contact with the girls aged 12 to 13 through social media.

He obtained intimate pictures from one of them, and then blackmailed her by threatening to share them if she told anyone else what had been going on.

In the case of his third victim, he locked the girl inside a car in a carpark and used physical force against her. When she managed to break free, he threatened violence against her pets.

The courts have been told that an underlying feature of Burrell’s offending, aside from the young and vulnerable victims, was that he minimised the harm he had caused and blamed the girls for “getting him in trouble”.

While serving time in the Otago Corrections Facility that year, Burrell filled a one-litre container with boiling water and threw it at another inmate, hitting his face and arm.

With extra time added for that assault, Burrell served more than six years in prison before being released in November 2024.

By then, he had been assessed as a “well above average” risk of committing another violent or sexual offence.

A psychologist’s report said the most likely scenario was that Burrell would be rejected by a woman of a similar age to himself, turning him towards “younger, more vulnerable and less threatening females as a potential source of gratification”.

The report said this might include girls under the age of 16, and “Mr Burrell has demonstrated that he can engage in grooming behaviour, progressing to coercion, blackmail and threats to obtain compliance”.

The report said that time might lessen the chances this could happen, but noted that Burrell had shown an “ongoing pattern of limited empathy and insight, negative attitudes to women, and prominent impulsivity”.

In 2025, at the end of Burrell’s period of release conditions, the Department of Corrections obtained an extended supervision order (ESO), allowing probation officers to keep tabs on him.

ESOs are used to manage the most high-risk sexual or violent offenders after they are released into the community.

They require offenders to report regularly, attend rehabilitation programmes if required, and impose restrictions on where they can live and work.

Corrections wanted the ESO to last five years, but Judge Stephen O’Driscoll in the Christchurch District Court imposed the order for three years.

Burrell subsequently went to the Court of Appeal, seeking to have the ESO removed or at least reduced to two and a half years.

In a recent decision, the Court of Appeal declined to remove the ESO or reduce the time he must stay subject to it.

After reviewing two psychologists’ reports, the appeal court justices said there was nothing to suggest Burrell’s “intense drive, desire or urge to commit relevant sexual offences” had diminished in the last eight years.

An intense drive or urge to commit sexual offences is one of the criteria under which an ESO can be imposed.

The Court of Appeal decision said that imposing the ESO was the “only course open” to Judge O’Driscoll, and that a three-year term was the minimum appropriate period.

“The judge considered that although Mr Burrell was young when he offended, there was no evidence that his risk had decreased over time given he continued to display derogatory and sexual behaviour towards women despite becoming a young adult,” the appeal court justices said.

The court’s decision means that Burrell remains subject to extended supervision until May 2028.

The Department of Corrections has the option of applying for a further order to extend its supervision if necessary.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.

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