Beast of Blenheim found guilty
Stewart Murray Wilson, also known as the Beast of Blenheim, has been found guilty of a raft of historical sex charges at a trial in the High Court in Auckland.
Yesterday, a jury of six men and six woman returned guilty verdicts to 11 charges including rape, attempted rape, indecent assault, threatening to kill and indecency with a girl under the age of 12.
He was found not guilty on two charges of rape and one charge of indecent assault, with the jury not able to reach verdicts on one charge of indecent assault and one charge of threatening to kill.
The Crown indicated they would not seek a retrial on the charges where a verdict was not reached.
Stuff was previously unable to report Wilson was facing the charges, which were laid in 2017 after an investigation into the allegations started in 2012.
Justice Graham Lang made a ruling prior to the trial that Wilson’s name, and nickname, should continue to be suppressed until verdicts were reached.
This was to ensure Wilson had a fair trial.
Wilson, one of New Zealand’s worst sex offenders, was in 1996 jailed for 21 years for crimes that shocked the country. His offending involved at least 42 women and girls. The jury were not told about Wilson’s previous offending or his 1996 trial, they were only told his name.
The evidence heard by the jury related to four complainants who alleged they were each raped by Wilson at different times, and at different locations, around New Zealand during the 1970s.
Wilson, who is now 71, was aged between 26 and 33 years old at the time.
One of the complaints was just 9 years old when the offences happened. Each gave accounts of how Wilson used violence and manipulation to control and rape them.
One woman told the court Wilson had broken into her home in 1972. She called police who came but they could not find him.
After they left, Wilson emerged again and attacked her.
‘‘I was standing in my room and an arm came around my neck and heard him say, ‘You b . . . . , I heard you ring the police, I’ll get you for this’.
‘‘He told me that he had been hiding in one of the cupboards in the kitchen and that was how he heard me call the police. I was terrified.’’
Wilson made the woman go into Wellington city and eat a meal before he took her home and raped her three times throughout the night.
Her young child was in the room at the time.
‘‘It was the longest night of my life,’’ she said.
Two other complainants told the court they responded to lonely heart advertisements Wilson was alleged to have placed in newspapers.
One woman told the court how she went on a date with Wilson before the pair ended up at his then-flat in Mt Eden, where he assaulted and raped her.
Wilson was found not guilty of her rape, but guilty of her attempted rape.
The woman went to police following the attack, but believed they did not take her complaint seriously.
‘‘They asked me things like, ‘did you enjoy it?’,’’ she told the court.
The woman gave another statement in 1996, but charges were not laid.
Another woman described how she too had responded to an advertisement in the paper.
She told the court that after responding to the ad, Wilson came over one evening and did not leave for a month. During that time he raped her a number of times, the court heard.
On another occasion, he allegedly sexually violated her after seeing an aroused horse in a paddock.
In relation to this complainant the jury found Wilson not guilty and also unable to reach a verdict.
The woman’s daughter also gave evidence about how Wilson had raped her while her mother was not at home.
‘‘I recall him saying good girl, it will be over soon. I think he said other things but my memory isn’t clear.
‘‘I have spent a long time trying to forget,’’ she said.
She told the court Wilson would take any opportunity to indecently assault her.
The jury found Wilson guilty of the young girl’s rape.
In his closing statement, Crown prosecutor Robin McCoubrey told the jury each woman detailed a similar series of events which led to them being raped.
‘‘I suggest they all lend weight to each other’s story. In each case they tell a story of almost immediate physical control and sexual violence,’’ McCoubrey said.
‘‘There is a similar theme running through each story which lends weight to my arguments to you that they all got it right.’’
Wilson’s defence team, led by Andrew McKenzie, did not opt to give evidence.
In his closing statement, McKenzie said the jury needed to be sure the Crown had proven the allegations against Wilson beyond reasonable doubt.
‘‘Sure today, sure tomorrow, sure next week, sure next year, sure forever that these charges happened,’’ McKenzie said.
In 1996, the serial rapist was jailed for 21 years for a litany of crimes involving women and girls.
Among the charges were rape, stupefying, bestiality, ill treatment of children and indecent assault, including revelations he made his daughter eat from a bowl with cats.
He also forced a woman to have sex with other women and the family dog.
It was this offending which earned the name ‘‘The Beast of Blenheim’’.
After serving his sentence, he was released on strict conditions to live on the grounds of Whanganui Prison in a selfcontained house.
He is currently under a Extended Supervision Order – meaning he is constantly monitored and has minders with him when he goes out in public.
Wilson will be sentenced on his most recent convictions next month.
The woman went to police following the attack, but believed they did not take her complaint seriously. ‘‘They asked me things like, ‘did you enjoy it?’,’’ she told the court.