Breaking: Serial paedophile Dennis McKenna to be released within weeks - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Serial paedophile Dennis John McKenna is set to be released after his sentence, with dozens of conditions. (ABC News: File)

One of WA's worst serial paedophiles, Dennis McKenna, will be free within weeks, despite today being declared a High Risk Serious Offender by the WA Supreme Court. 

That decision could have made him subject to a continuing detention order, meaning he could be locked up indefinitely. 

But instead he will be released back into the community, subject to more than 40 conditions. 

McKenna is currently behind bars for the second time for sexually abusing boys while he was in charge of a school boarding hostel in Katanning in the 1970s and 80s.

Justice Marcus Solomon said McKenna's presence in the community carried the potential to re-traumatise victims, but that did not mean he could be locked up indefinitely.

"Re-traumatising of victims not a commission of offence, therefore the prospect of it happening — as appalling as it is — is not a power that allows continuing the detention of offender under the act," he said.

"However, it is a factor that can be taken into account during the crafting of the conditions."

McKenna will be subject to 41 conditions as part of the order, which will severely restrict his ability to move freely around.

The conditions include being banned from having contact with any of his 29 victims, children, attending parks with playgrounds, and having to report any relationships to corrective services officers.

He will also be banned from the town of Katanning.

In his decision, Justice Solomon said the court's job was to make an assessment of risk to the community, not punishment due to the offender.

"It should therefore be appreciated that this application has a necessarily narrow focus ... judges cannot permit glare of public interest, intensity of media chatter or their own indignation to distract them into commentary on politically or socially contentious matters," he said.

"When judges do so, they ... diminish confidence ... and undermine the administration of justice."

Kaye Anderson's two sons were abused by McKenna, and both died by suicide. 

She was disappointed the state prosecutor did not consider requesting for McKenna to be locked up indefinitely.

She said life was "mental torment, day in, day out".

Kaye Anderson was disappointed with the news of McKenna's impending release, and wants him locked up indefinitely. (ABC News: Jake Sturmer)

"I mean it just doesn't go away — and I don't think the justice system has realised how bad his offending was and he should never, ever be released," Ms Anderson said.

But she has vowed not to give up at the prospect of one day having McKenna behind bars again.

"Don't worry, I'm not giving up. I've still got life in me," she said.

Katanning whistleblower and victims' advocate Maggie Dawkins said there was "very credible evidence" McKenna had offended when he was last released into the community in the 2000s.

Maggie Dawkins spoke outside court.  (ABC News: Jake Sturmer)

She urged any victims to come forward to police.

McKenna abused students in the 1970s and 80s while he was the warden at St Andrew's Hostel, a boarding lodge in the town of Katanning, 290 kilometres south-east of Perth.

McKenna's brazen abuse of hostel students was revealed over the course of four separate court cases between 1991 and 2015.

He was jailed in 1991 but released after a year and 10 months on parole. 

Police laid further charges in the late 2000s, and he has been in jail since 2011, serving a 15-and-a-half year term.