Convicted sex offender Ron Jeffries stayed at the United Motel in Palmerston North, along with dozens of vulnerable children.

Dozens of vulnerable children were placed in a motel with a notorious child sex offender despite a case manager knowing he was living there.

The revelation is contained in documents released under the Official Information Act about the placement of Ronald Jeffries at the United Motel in Palmerston North by the Department of Corrections on April 30.

The documents show Jeffries, who was subject to a 10-year extended supervision order (ESO) after a lifetime of sexual offending, contacted the Ministry for Social Development (MSD) by phone on May 3, inquiring about a Housing New Zealand home.

The 66-year-old told the interviewing case manager he was staying at the United Motel - accommodation sourced and funded by Corrections.

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The case manager assumed the placement was appropriate because Corrections was involved, and didn't advise anyone else at MSD, according to the documents.

They didn't realise Jeffries was living among vulnerable families.

From that date, another 13 families with 33 children were placed at the motel by MSD before Corrections took Jeffries into custody on July 26.

A major project was under way between Corrections and MSD to prevent this very type of miscommunication – after two incidents in 2017 involving recently released offenders – but had yet to be implemented, the papers show.

Jeffries is charged with breaching the conditions of his ESO by having contact with children without permission, which he denies.

The documents released to Stuff, which include dozens of emails and a briefing to Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni, show officials were worried Jeffries had abused some of the children living at the motel.

Police investigated with the help of social workers and found no evidence of criminal offending.

Officials scrambled to find out if vulnerable families were living at any of the 15 motels Corrections were using to house high-risk offenders. It's unclear from the documents if any such cases were identified, but at least two families stayed at motels also used by Corrections in the week ended August 10.

According to the documents, Jeffries lived at a Housing New Zealand property in Palmerston North, but was removed in early April after opposition from residents who worried about the safety of their children.

Corrections placed Jeffries at the United Motel after consulting the owner, who had made an assurance there were no families with children staying there on "an ongoing basis", the documents say. MSD, who regularly used the motel for emergency housing, was not notified.

According to the documents, checks later showed three MSD-placed families with eight children between them were staying at the motel when Jeffries moved in. There was at least one family there when Corrections consulted the motel owner in mid-April about housing the sex offender. Another arrived the next day.

"This clearly should have been a red flag to the motel owner to advise Corrections," an August 14 email from a senior official to MSD deputy chief executive Viv Rickard says.

The motel owner declined to comment when contacted by Stuff.

The August 1 briefing to Sepuloni says the May 3 phone call between Jeffries and an MSD staff member was potentially a missed opportunity to intervene.

"In short, it appears the MSD person completing the housing needs assessment obtained [Jeffries'] address as [the United Motel] but was unaware that MSD was using the motel for emergency housing."

Staff members carrying out housing assessments were not always involved in providing emergency housing because of the "nature and scope of the various roles that MSD staff undertake when delivering housing services", the briefing says.

In a statement to Stuff last week, Rickard said: "The Ministry acknowledges that in this case, part of the organisation had information that should have been shared with other key staff. The Ministry is currently reviewing its processes to ensure that this situation does not happen again."

The documents show Corrections and MSD started working on a new system for dealing with released prisoners in emergency housing after two incidents in mid-2017 highlighted the need for better co-ordination. Stuff has requested further information about the two incidents.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU), under which Corrections would provide emergency housing for the highest risk offenders and MSD all others, was due to come into effect in September.

An email refers to a warning from Corrections that it would be "chaotic" for MSD in terms of accommodating lower risk offenders "and they also spoke of potential security concerns as they have experienced when trying to accommodate [offenders]."

LAWRENCE SMITH/STUFF Ronald Jeffries was subject to an extended supervision order he described as like "torture".

On August 14, MSD took an inventory of people it had provided emergency housing grants to and discovered it had erroneously paid grants to three child sex offenders in the past week.

It was never MSD's intention to manage child sex offenders in emergency housing, a manager wrote in an email, as "our staff simply aren't trained to manage those risks".

Client notes suggested staff were fully aware of the nature of the men's offending when the grants were made, "which is something we will have to reflect on", they wrote.

MSD client service delivery general manager Gagau Annandale-Stone said the MOU between MSD and Corrections came into effect on October 15 and was "working well".

"Since the new arrangement there have been no issues in the placement of high or low risk offenders in emergency housing."

Corrections deputy national commissioner Andy Milne said the chief probation officer had completed a review of the incident, but he could not discuss its findings while the prosecution against Jeffries was ongoing.

Milne confirmed that Rachel Leota, the national commissioner at the time, was involved in the decision to urgently remove Jeffries from his Housing New Zealand accommodation in April, but it was staff at a regional level who made the call to place him at the United Motel.

Recent changes meant the deputy national commissioner had to approve emergency motel accommodation for high risk offenders, he said.

Jeffries was released from prison in March 2017 after serving five and a half years for sexual offending against a girl between 12 and 15 years old. He would stupefy her, abuse her, then photograph her.

Before he walked free, Corrections applied for an ESO so he would be monitored and managed while back in the community.

The orders are for offenders who pose a real and ongoing risk to the public. But Jeffries is alleged to have repeatedly ignored the conditions and is scheduled to appear in the Palmerston North District Court this month on four charges of breaching the order. The dates for the alleged offending span from March 1 to July 25. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of two years' imprisonment.

In 1973, Jeffries, aged 20, was jailed for two years for attempted rape. In 1981 he was sentenced to six years' jail for a brutal episode of offending against two victims during which he raped one victim four times.