Fardon is also required to advise Corrective Services officers about his planned activities on a weekly basis, and must also tell them if he enters any relationship. He’s prohibited from making contact with any of his victims, as well as an intellectually disabled woman who he was convicted of raping but later acquitted. Part of his release conditions also prohibit him from unsupervised contact with children, people with mental disabilities or those who suffer from substance abuse. Outside court, child protection advocate Hetty Johnston said Fardon’s victims were appalled by the ruling to release him. She said the decision ‘‘trashes the very notion of community safety’’.

‘‘Fardon is not a changed man; he’s a psychopath,’’ the Bravehearts founder said. ‘‘He’s only ever going to be one breath away from snapping.’’ Fardon, 64, has spent just five of the last 30 years outside of prison. On Thursday the notorious serial rapist took to a Brisbane Supreme Court witness stand for the first time in his long criminal history to say he was ready to be released. In a lispy voice, caused by air rushing through missing teeth, Fardon said the weekly therapy sessions he had with forensic psychologist Nicholas Smith over the the past seven to eight months had given him an insight "into the issues which I have come to terms with and opened me to co-operate with programs".

Fardon asked to be released from prison and into the Wacol Precinct, home to many convicted sexual offenders, and placed under a supervised court order. Fardon was jailed for the rape and assault of a 12-year-old girl he attacked at gunpoint 1978. However, his vicious attack on the girl was not his first brush with the law – as an 18-year-old in 1966 he was given a bond after being found guilty of attempting carnal knowledge of a girl under 10. Within days of his 1988 release, he was charged over the rape and serious assault of a woman in Townsville and in 1989 was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. Over the next decade Fardon continued to make headlines, particularly over his prison pen pal love affair with the late Valmae Beck, who was sentenced to life in prison for her role in the 1987 rape and murder of Sunshine Coast 12-year-old, Sian Kingi, was made public.

Fardon was due for release in June 2003, but in an attempt to keep him in prison he became the first person in Queensland to be jailed indefinitely under the state's Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act. Fardon appealed the validity of the legislation in the High Court in 2004. He lost, but was released again in 2006 on a strict supervision order with more than 45 conditions. Then, in April 2008, he was returned to jail, charged with the rape of a 63-year-old intellectually impaired woman he knew. He was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Two years later, the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction on the grounds a judge only trial should have been held and the conviction was unreasonable based on the evidence presented at the trial. But he was kept in jail on the grounds he had breached his supervised release order by consorting with the woman and going to a surf club which served alcohol. Fardon applied for release again in 2011. He was granted a supervised release order by a Supreme Court judge, but then Attorney-General Paul Lucas immediately appealed the decision. Fardon remained in prison. Four months ago, Fardon's case again came up for review. It was adjourned to allow Fardon time to undergo a program and undertake more counselling sessions after he had shown an interest in therapy for the first time in nine years.

- Amy Remeikis and AAP

