Stories of the decade: Sex offender Stewart Murray Wilson causes uproar in Whanganui

Staff from the Department of Corrections and Police turned out to face questions from the public about the impending arrival of Stewart Murray Wilson. Photo / File

As we enter a new decade, we take a look back at some of the biggest stories that hit the headlines in Whanganui over the past 10 years.

Serial sex offender Stewart Murray Wilson caused a furore in Whanganui in 2012 and remained in the news throughout the decade.

On August 8, 2012, the Department of Corrections announced that Wilson, previously dubbed "the Beast of Blenheim", would be paroled to live in a house on the grounds of Whanganui Prison. The 65-year-old had served 18 years of a 21-year sentence for sexual offending against women and girls, including rape, indecent assault, stupefying, wilful ill-treatment of a child and bestiality.

It was decided to place Wilson in the house because Whanganui was deemed one of the few places in the country where there were no victims and his location in the prison grounds would be away from close neighbours.

The Parole Board imposed 17 strict conditions on Wilson, including wearing a GPS monitoring bracelet, undertaking a reintegration programme, being unable to leave the prison grounds without being accompanied by two minders, and being confined to the Whanganui district. He was to serve three years of parole, followed by 10 years of extended supervision.

An outcry in Whanganui led to several public meetings, with about 200 people turning up to the first one on August 12, 2012. The second meeting several days later, when Corrections and Police staff fronted up, saw tempers flaring and emotions running high among the 300-strong crowd.

The district council met on August 16 and councillors unanimously agreed to take "all appropriate measures" - including legal action - to fight the Parole Board's decision to bring Wilson to Whanganui. The council's lawyer filed an application for a judicial review of the parole decision, while Wilson's lawyer appealed against some of the 17 parole conditions and requested that Wilson not be sent to Whanganui.

However, on August 25, Wilson was moved from Rolleston Prison to Whanganui Prison ahead of his release and two days later Justice Ron Young dismissed both the council's and Wilson's requests for judicial reviews at the High Court in Wellington. The council later decided not to appeal the court decision and revealed it had spent $77,000 on its failed bid to keep Wilson out of Whanganui.

Wilson was released from Whanganui Prison into a self-care unit within the grounds of the prison on August 29.

The house in the Whanganui Prison grounds. Photo / File

There were council moves to organise trespass orders to stop Wilson going to local businesses and to ban him from council-owned public places but police said they couldn't enforce the blanket trespass notices.

A community safety group was formed, involving the council, various agencies and residents near the prison, to "work on a joint approach to informing, educating and reassuring the community so they can be confident the measures already in place around Wilson will be effective in minimising risk to the public".

In February 2013, Wilson was back behind bars in the interim after allegedly breaching his parole conditions and appeared in the Whanganui District Court in relation to the alleged breach. He was remanded for a defended hearing and the Parole Board confirmed in April that he had been recalled to prison.

In late March 2015, Wilson was back in the house on the Whanganui Prison grounds, again with GPS monitoring and supervision required if he left the house.

His parole conditions expired on March 1, 2016, and he became subject to a 10-year extended supervision order. But in October 2016 the Department of Corrections applied for a new intensive monitoring regime for Wilson.

Stewart Murray Wilson in court in November 2018. Photo / File

In November 2018, Wilson was jailed again, sentenced to a concurrent term of two years and four months' imprisonment for a series of historic rapes. Wilson appealed the sentence in August 2019 and two days after the Court of Appeal hearing the Parole Board allowed Wilson to leave prison again. He returned to his cottage on the Whanganui Prison grounds on August 20. In a decision released in November, the Court of Appeal dismissed Wilson's appeal.