Stewart Murray Wilson

Stewart Murray Wilson
Born	(1946-12-11) 11 December 1946
Nationality	New Zealand
Other names	Known as the Beast of Blenheim
Known for	Sexual offending & being paroled to Wanganui

Stewart Murray Wilson (born 11 December 1946)is a convicted New Zealand sex offender from Blenheim, New Zealand dubbed "The Beast of Blenheim . He has a history of serious sexual offending including offences against children. He served 18 years in prison and then had the most stringent release conditions of anyone ever released from prison in New Zealand imposed by the Parole Board. The decision to release him to a house on the grounds of the Wanganui prison caused an uproar among local citizens.

Biography

Wilson was the eldest child in his family, with two brothers and a sister. His youngest brother was killed in a car crash aged 14. The family home was in Essex St, Timaru and the children attended Marchwiel Primary School. His parents were both alcoholics and divorced in the 1970s. A family friend has reported that Wilson's father used to beat his wife and the children. Wilson missed a lot of school and would sometimes come to school with bruises. In 1996, Wilson's mother told a newspaper her son suffered brain damage in his early teens which 'caused him to lose control occasionally'. He was taken into a children's home and spent time in Cherry Farm Psychiatric Hospital where he was apparently diagnosed with a personality disorder..

During his teens Wilson had many run-ins with the law. His criminal record began in 1962 when he appeared in court on burglary charges. Prior to the 1990s he also had convictions for assault on females, living off the earnings of a prostitute, and assault on a child.

In 1996 Wilson was convicted on a raft of sex offences involving 16 female victims over 23 years from 1972 to December 1994, when he was arrested. The guilty verdicts were for seven charges of rape, one of attempted rape, six of indecent assault, two of stupefying, one of attempted stupefying, two of wilful ill-treatment of a child, three of assault on a female, and one of bestiality; a total of 23 counts. Many of the charges were laid representatively. One of the offences was the rape of his 13 or 14 year-old step-daughter in front of her mother. One of the indecent assaults was of a girl under the age of 16. He was acquitted of two other charges but was sentenced to 21 years in prison in March 1996. The judge said that he would have given a sentence of preventive detention, except that this option was not available for the offences committed when they were.

Lack of rehabilitation in prison

For many years Wilson was held in Rolleston Prison, a low-security prison with a sex offenders unit that delivers group-based treatment to child sex offenders. The Department refused to put him into this programme because he would not admit to a psychologist that he was guilty - although the Department's entry criteria for its sex offenders' programme states that "denial or other cognitive distortions related to offending behaviour" is an indication of suitability for the programme.

Despite repeated appearances before the New Zealand Parole Board from September 2006, Wilson was not released prior to his statutory release date in 2012 because he denied responsibility for his offending, appeared to have no remorse, had not engaged in any treatment and was assessed at high risk of reoffending. However, speaking via video link to the High Court at Wellington in June 2012, Wilson complained, not for the first time, that he had been denied any treatment since being sentenced in 1996. He said he had even been denied one-on-one counselling with a psychologist because he would not admit he was guilty and complained he has had only four hours one-on-one counselling in the 18 years he has been in prison. Wilson said he had also offered to do the STOP programme to treat sex offenders, but was not permitted to do so. At a hearing in 2011 the Board acknowledged that the only counselling Mr Wilson had done was a few sessions with an ACC-funded counsellor.

Parole Board hearings

Prior to his impending release in September 2012, Wilson appeared before the Parole Board at least five times. Each application for early release was turned down. After 18 years in prison and now aged 65, he was released two days before his statutory release date of 1 September 2012.

In the process of establishing his release conditions, the parole board was told by clinical psychologist, Jane Freeman-Brown, that Wilson was still at high risk of reoffending. Wilson declined to be interviewed for the assessment, which relied instead on information from his prison file. Nevertheless, the Parole Board was impressed with her report and imposed 17 release conditions, said to be the toughest conditions ever imposed on anyone released from prison in New Zealand. The first of those conditions requires Wilson to live in a state house which was to be shifted onto the grounds of Wanganui Prison especially for him. Another condition was for him to wear a GPS tracking device - the first prisoner ever to be fitted with one.

Public reaction to his release

Media coverage about Wilson has been extensive and in almost every story, it says he's been 'dubbed the Beast of Blenheim' - although his 16 victims comes nowhere near the more than 100 victims of New Zealand's longest serving prisoner, Alfred Thomas Vincent. At the age of 74, Vincent has been in prison for 45 years. How Wilson first came to be labelled the 'Beast' is not known. Columnist Rosemary McLeod notes that the media generally cannot get away with such insulting terminology but says nobody seems to be protesting at Wilson being 'dubbed in this way'. Jim Hopkins, a columnist for the New Zealand Herald noted for his humorous writing style said: "We're never told who did the dubbery, but it is exceedingly kind of the media to advise us that it's happened". According to Hopkins: "Dubbing tells we're allowed to loathe the person concerned with a clear conscience and that we needn't restrain our abhorrence in any way."

The news of Wilson's release created a public outcry, led by former Wanganui mayor and controversial broadcaster, Michael Laws who was furious that Wanganui was being used as a 'dumping ground' for sex offenders. The Wanganui District Council was so concerned it filed proceedings with the High Court to try and prevent him being sent there. After the High Court ruled against the City Council, Councillor Ray Stevens started a campaign to have Wilson trespassed from Wanganui shops.

Very few commentators tried to allay the public's fears. One who did is Victoria University professor, Tony Ward, a clinical psychologist with expertise in sexual offenders. He said it was irresponsible for local body politicians to ramp up public fear of Murray Wilson. He described the fervour at Wanganui's public meetings as a type of "moral panic" and said the overly punitive stance from Wanganui people undermined the justice system. He also said that given Mr Wilson's age, he was unlikely to reoffend as "The reoffending rate for very high risk people over 60 is about six per cent." Professor Ward said the best way to rehabilitate sex offenders was to keep them in the midst of other people - where they could be watched - and give them support.