December 16, 2008

'Beast' prison release bid dismissed

The bid for release from prison after 14 years by Stewart Murray Wilson, the convicted sex offender who became known as The Beast of Blenheim, was ruled out in the High Court at Christchurch today.

The decision by Justice Lester Chisholm means that Wilson now faces a Parole Board hearing at which the chief executive of the Department of Corrections is seeking an order under section 107 of the Parole Act to keep him in prison for almost another four years.

The start of that Parole Board hearing was delayed while the decision was reached in the High Court. Crown prosecutors, and Wilson himself, were heading straight from the Court House for the hearing at the prison.

Wilson, now aged 62, had sought at Writ of Habeas Corpus to force his release from Christchurch?s Rolleston Prison prior to the hearing. He said the chief executive?s application was out of time, by his calculations, and should have been heard before his final release date.

Justice Chisholm reserved his decision after hearing the submissions on Monday afternoon.

He calculated today that the correct final release date was December 2, 2008, and that the chief executive had filed the 107 application in time on October 21.

He also ruled that the legislation contemplated there would be a delay before the application was heard, and that the offender must not be released on his final release date while a section 107 application was awaiting a hearing.

He said Wilson had raised various issues about the merits of the chief executive?s application, but those matters were for the Parole Board, not the High Court.

The outcome of the Parole Board hearing is likely to be known in a few days.

Wilson was convicted in 1996 for sex offending involving women and girls over 23 years. The charges included rape, bestiality, stupefying, ill-treatment of children and indecent assault. He was sentenced to 21 years? jail.

In September this year, the Parole Board turned down his bid for parole, and said he had been assessed as a high or very high risk of serious or violent recidivism. The chief executive then made the application to hold him for a further three years nine months.