Infamous ‘Beast of Blenheim’ found guilty of more rapes
Stewart Murray Wilson, the serial sex offender infamously dubbed “the Beast of Blenheim”, has been found guilty of raping a woman and a then 9-year-old girl, while also being found guilty of attempting to rape a third woman.
For months the Herald has followed the case which culminated yesterday with a jury reaching its verdicts for the 71-year-old after a weeklong trial in the High Court at Auckland.
Wilson’s name, prior offending, and nickname had been suppressed until yesterday to protect his fair trial rights.
He is known for drugging, assaulting and raping women over a 23-year period before he was caught.
He was sentenced in 1996 to 21 years’ imprisonment for sex and violence offences against women and girls, as well as charges of stupefying and bestiality. In 2012, Wilson was subjected to an extended supervision order and released with the most stringent conditions ever imposed on a New Zealander, including being paroled to a two-bedroom house which had been moved onto the Whanganui Prison grounds. Yesterday, 16 more charges laid against the Beast of Blenheim could be revealed.
Police re-investigated Wilson in 2016 and accused him of raping three more women and a then girl in the 1970s and early 1980s in Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland.
Wilson was discharged on one count of stupefying, while one of the rape charges was changed to attempted rape.
The jury deliberated on six rape charges, three indecent assaults, three counts of indecency with a girl under 12, two charges of threatening to kill, one charge of attempted rape, and one charge of burglary. They returned unanimous guilty verdicts on 11 charges, one unanimous not guilty verdict, majority verdicts of not guilty on two charges, and were hung on two other charges.
Wilson will be sentenced later this year.