The Front Page: The sordid plots and schemes behind Sir James Wallace’s crimes

Sir James Wallace was heavily involved in the arts scene. Photo/Dean Purcell

Details in the case against convicted sex offender Sir James Wallace read as though they could have been plucked from the pages of a crime thriller.

NZ Herald news director and senior reporter Sam Hurley has been following the case since it reached the courts in 2017 and tells The Front Page podcast that some events were “completely bizarre”.

The sordid saga involves high-profile entertainment figures, secret recordings, a so-called Gold Coast plot and threats of a Turkish traffic crash.

“It just got weirder and weirder as the case went on,” says Hurley.

“The initial trial [in 2017] came to an abrupt halt probably about a week into it because of the emergence of this secret recording. There had been this plot that Wallace had sort of instigated, along with a few other conspirators, including Mika X, the entertainer, and [PR professional] Jevan Goulter, who had been hired to help make this court case and the allegations go away.

“They travelled to the Gold Coast to this five-star, plush hotel and wined and dined one of the victims who was living in Queensland at the time. Their whole goal was to offer him a bribe and tell him to drop his allegations against Wallace.”

But that didn’t go according to plan, because the victim knew what was happening and recorded the whole thing on his phone.

That wasn’t the last secret recording to bring this trial to a rapid standstill and leave everyone involved flabbergasted. Another recording made at Auckland’s Family Bar would take the discussions to an even darker place, with suggestions the victim could be taken to Turkey and end up in a body bag after a car crash.

“The judge at the time had no real choice but to abandon that trial because this was just such explosive new evidence,” says Hurley.

• So why exactly were Mika X and Goulter so willing to work with Wallace?
• Did Wallace believe he could simply pay his way out of this situation?
• How did Wallace retain name suppression for so long?
• Now that name suppression has been lifted, will more victims tell their stories?
• And how long will Wallace actually stay in prison for his offences?

Listen to the full episode of the Front Page podcast to hear the full story from Hurley.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. It is presented by Damien Venuto, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in business reporting who joined the Herald in 2017.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.