The Sensible Sentencing Trust is gobsmacked a high risk sex offender is staying just metres from a south Auckland school.

The convicted rapist, who has name suppression, is living in temporary accommodation near Te Kura Maori o Nga Tapuwae in Mangere.

Students at the school have filmed the man making hand gestures at them.

The judge is being slammed by the Trust for turning down a plea by Corrections for the man to be kept in secure premises as they deemed him to be at high risk of reoffending.

The Trust claimed the judge had basically handed these children to the offender.

Youth advocate Jessica McVicar said she was frustrated with the Department of Corrections.

"They've put him across from a school. It absolutely blows my mind that there is, seriously, absolutely nowhere else that he could have gone. They're literally playing these kids into his hands."

READ MORE: Corrections under fire for housing sex offender next to school.