Stewart Murray Wilson has been on trial during the past week for more historical rapes. Photo / Michael Craig
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 today with a jury reaching its verdicts for the 71-year-old after a week-long trial in the High Court at Auckland.
Wilson's name, prior offending, and nickname had been suppressed until today 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.
Today, 16 more charges laid against the Beast of Blenheim can 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.
The charges were later amended at trial, and Wilson was discharged on one count of stupefying, while one of the rape charges was changed to attempted rape.
After the alterations, 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.
This afternoon, 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 was found not guilty of two rape counts and one charge of indecent assault. The jury was unable to reach verdicts on a charge of indecent assault and one count of threatening to kill.
Afterwards, Justice Graham Lang also told the jury of Wilson's lengthy criminal history.
"This is a trial about four women who will tell you they were raped by Mr Wilson," Crown prosecutor Robin McCoubrey told the jury on day one of the trial.
One of the victims, a friend of Wilson's partner at the time, recalled a night in 1971-72 at her Wellington home knitting while her baby daughter slept.
Then Wilson knocked on her door, she said.
"I didn't answer because you don't answer the door at night when you're living alone," she told the court.
"I heard a voice say 'it's Murray Wilson'. I was frightened 'cause I knew he'd been violent towards [his partner]."
She hid under her bed but Wilson bashed his way through the wooden front door.
As she tried to remain unseen she could see Wilson's legs and feet stalking her bedroom.
Believing he had left, the woman quickly went to the kitchen and phoned police, who arrived shortly after.
"They searched the grounds," she said. "But couldn't find anyone and said if there was any trouble to call them back."
But, Wilson had been hiding - he was in a kitchen cupboard.
As the woman returned to her room she was met with a truly horrifying scene - an arm reached around her neck from behind.
"You bitch, I'll get you for this. I heard you ringing the police," Wilson told her.
He attacked the woman, hitting her several times across the face and back.
Then he wanted to take his prisoner to dinner at a restaurant on Courtney Place. His victim remembered splashing water on her face to try and cover the marks and bruises.
While at the restaurant, the woman said Wilson spiked her drink before taking her back to the house.
"I was raped by Murray Wilson," the woman said.
"I was raped four times. It was just a horrific night, it seemed the longest night of my life."
Before he let her go, Wilson said if the woman told anyone she would be "dead meat" and "hunted down and killed".
Crippled by fear, she stayed silent for years before she went to see Wilson on trial in 1996.
Wilson, she said, turned around and looked at her from the dock as she sat in the public gallery.
Her counsellor urged her to tell police about what had happened to her more than 20 years prior, she added.
"I knew it would help me to tell my story instead of keeping it all bottled up inside," the woman said.
"I was told [by police] Murray Wilson couldn't be charged at that time [for the crimes against me] because he was already on charges."
Wilson's second victim lived in Auckland in December 1976.
She responded to a classified newspaper ad Wilson placed before the two decided to meet.
"I just didn't like the look of him – a strange looking person," she said.
However, Wilson forced the woman back to his Mt Eden flat.
There he attacked her.
Her arm was dislocated and jaw broken, she said.
"Do as you're told, get in that room and get your clothes off," she said Wilson yelled.
"I didn't want any more hidings so I just did what I was told to do, I just obeyed."
Wilson later made the women a "lime" drink which she said made her feel dizzy.
"Drink it, it'll make you relax," she said Wilson told her.
"After I drank it I felt sleepy, [I was] in and out of consciousness ... He just lay there watching me, just looking at me.
"I don't remember anything from that time until I woke up in the morning."
She woke up the next morning and said Wilson had tried to rape her.
Wilson was found not guilty of raping the woman but guilty of attempted rape.
Wilson, his victim said, wanted her to return for dinner and so to keep him happy she seized on an opportunity to escape.
She said she'd return later in the evening but after leaving the house in a cab she immediately went to police.
However, she said officers did not take her complaint seriously and "treated me like sh*t ... no feeling, no nothing, just like I was a piece of scum".
No police paperwork of her interview can be found. However, a former detective recalled during the trial he had returned the woman's clothes to her after testing the garments.
Wilson's third and fourth complainants were a mother and her young daughter who lived in Hamilton during the summer of 1979-80.
The solo mum lived with her three young daughters and said she also answered a classified newspaper ad by Wilson.
"He said his name was Murray Wilson," she said
Wilson arrived at the home with flowers and chocolates, the court heard, before he moved into the house for about four weeks.
While there, she said he repeatedly raped her and also raped one of the daughters, who at the time was 9 years old.
"He would never stop," the mother said. "I was frightened of him."
Wilson was found not guilty of raping and indecently assaulting the mother but guilty of raping the daughter.
The mum also said while driving in the countryside with Wilson and her daughters he made a crude comment about a horse before forcing her to perform oral sex on him in front of her children.
He later violated her, she told the court.
The trio only escaped Wilson's violent grasp when the mum saw an opportunity to flee.
"I think I just saw an opportunity to get out of the house where he couldn't stop me," she said.
"Help me, help me, he's going to hurt us," she recalled crying out as she ran to her neighbour's home.
Wilson didn't stick around - he left in a taxi shortly after, the court heard.
The woman's then 9-year-old daughter, now living in an isolated part of the world, told the court Wilson also raped her.
"I recall very vividly that there was a towel underneath me," she said.
"It was a very ratty towel - I don't know why I remember that but I do ... He proceeded to rape me, I was very afraid, I was just terrified and tense and shocked."
She said she was "frozen in fear and shock" as Wilson uttered: "Good girl, it'll be over soon."
"I've spent a long time trying to forget," the woman said.
The daughter said she was now estranged from her mum after being asked to not go to police. She said her mum failed to protect her from Wilson.
"We were taught to obey the men who came through our house, whoever they were," the daughter said.
"If I was in the bath or shower [Wilson] would come in and touch me any chance he got."
Throughout the trial, Wilson simply denied all of the charges through his lawyer Andrew McKenzie, arguing all the allegations never occurred.
Wilson declined to give or call any evidence in his defence. However, he spoke to police at his cottage on the grounds of Whanganui Prison during the investigation.
"Shocked, I can't believe it," Wilson said of the allegations.
In explanation, he said his victims might have been fabricating their claims and "trying to get some ACC money".
Wilson was convicted on the new charges he was found guilty of and will be sentenced later this year.
They allege the Crown ignored Treaty obligations by not engaging with them.