‘Will we ever get our son back’, mother tells sexual offender
A sexual predator of young boys has narrowly avoided a sentence of preventive detention despite reports suggesting he is a high risk of reoffending upon his eventual release.
Stephen Edric Wilkinson, 54, of Dunedin, was jailed when he appeared in the High Court at Timaru yesterday.
He had admitted charges of indecent assault and indecent act on a young person under 12 at Caroline Bay, Timaru, and two of sexually grooming two young boys aged 11 and 12 in the Timaru District Court in October 2021, before his case was transferred to the High Court as the Crown sought preventive detention.
During the sentencing of Wilkinson to a minimum of 21⁄2 years jail, Justice Jonathan Eaton revealed Wilkinson had eight previous convictions for indecent acts and assaults and his target, outlined at other appearances, was prepubescent boys.
The victim of the indecent assault and indecent act in 2020 was a boy, aged 10, who was visiting the Caroline Bay Carnival with his family. He was at the skate park and went to the toilet with his brother, who stayed outside to look after their scooters.
Wilkinson was already in the toilets and came up behind the boy, indecently assaulting him, then performing an indecent act, laughing as he left.
Police at the carnival were immediately informed but could not locate the offender.
A few weeks later, Wilkinson travelled back to Timaru from Dunedin, heading to the skate park where he befriended two other boys and gifted one a BMX bike and helmet, later accompanying them fishing and took them to The Warehouse, buying other gifts.
He had pre-booked accommodation in Timaru, gifted the grandmother of one of the boys a $100 grocery voucher, and took the boys out with him. A concerned member of the public alerted police, and he was located at a Timaru business.
Reading her victim impact statement to the court, the mother of the 10-year-old boy said it was difficult to fully explain the devastating impact of what had happened.
She said her son had recently said he ‘‘wanted to end it all’’ in an incident in which he was holding a knife to his throat.
‘‘He is only 11 years old. He was a very outgoing boy, a leader, an entertainer and all this has been stolen from him. He is now a glass half-empty boy.’’
She said her boy will no longer use a public toilet, won’t go out in public and during nights he is so scared someone is going to come into the house that he needed to be checked on regularly and wakes up crying.
‘‘It is heartbreaking to see your child go through this. Will we ever get our old [son] back.’’
She said their other son had also been affected and needed counselling.
‘‘It has had an isolating effect on us . . . people just don’t understand . . . it is so very cruel.’’
The Crown had submitted, through prosecutor Andrew McRae, that preventive detention was the only sentence because of the offending and the ongoing high risk of offending if released into the community.
Justice Eaton said the victim impact statement described the consequences of Wilkinson’s offending on the ‘‘brave boy’’ who now blames himself for freezing in fear during an incident that has caused so much pain and anguish to the family as well.
Reports from a psychologist and a psychiatrist revealed Wilkinson was a victim of sexual abuse as a child and a teenager, but also detailed a long list of treatment, with vastly different levels of engagement, and in some cases ‘‘disregarded it in continuing to offend’’.
One report said the risk to reoffending was ‘‘well above average’’, there was ‘‘a lack of remorse’’, and he continued to deny having deviant sexual preferences which ‘‘points to a very high risk of sexual recidivism’’.
Justice Eaton said one report writer said Wilkinson had revealed he ‘‘did not think he should be released from prison’’.
Justice Eaton said the indecent assault was the lead offence and the aggravating features were the age disparity, the inherent vulnerability, the boy being targeted when he was on his own and the extent of the harm being caused.
Justice Eaton said aggravating features were similar on the grooming charges, plus premeditation in travelling some distance, the measures used to secure trust, and he rejected Wilkinson’s denials that it was sexually motivated.
‘‘The grooming offences are further evidence of sexual deviancy.’’
Justice Eaton said a starting point of four years’ jail was at the top of the available range, but he added another 10 months’ for the aggravating features of Wilkinson’s previous offending that started in 1997 – but that only came to light in 2011. There were other convictions in 2010, 2016, 2018 and 2021 relating to indecent acts or indecent assaults.
In declining preventive detention, Justice Eaton said the offending, while serious, fell short of the more serious sexual violation convictions needed for PD. He added that an extended supervision order was a way of managing a high-risk prisoner, and there would be a formal warning of preventive detention issued.
Justice Eaton believed further treatment was needed for Wilkinson as he ‘‘sensed an awakening’’ in him towards his problems, saying ‘‘you are not a lost cause’’ but treatment managers would be on high alert to ensure he participates fully in the rehabilitation requirements.
Wilkinson was told he has a mindset of ‘‘sexual deviancy’’, but Justice Eaton believed the mindset is changing.
The sentences delivered were three years and 10 months’ jail for indecent assault, 18 months’ for indecent act and two years’ for the grooming convictions, all to be served concurrently with a minimum imprisonment sentence of 30 months.
Wilkinson was warned that if he sexually offends again then he runs a ‘‘great risk of an indefinite prison sentence’’.