Editorial: Govt can turn law on beasts

How much time, effort, stress and money has been wasted so far on the parasite we have come to know as the Beast of Blenheim?

Stewart Murray Wilson, a 65-year-old serial sex offender, is to be let out of jail this week after serving 18 years of a 21-year sentence for heinous crimes against women, children and animals.

Efforts to stop his release into the Wanganui community have so far failed, with the council there losing its case in the High Court on Monday.

No one wants Wilson as a neighbour.

Wanganui residents are going as far as threatening to issue trespass orders to keep him away from certain areas of the city.

Some might say the residents are going over the top - Wilson has to live somewhere. If you have done your time in jail, admitted your guilt, promised to be a better citizen and genuinely shown you are prepared to change, surely you deserve another shot at life on the outside?

But Wilson is different. He hasn't shown remorse and hasn't taken part in any rehabilitation programmes to fix his sick mind.

Imagine if he was released on your street? Your home, that you have considered safe all this time, may no longer be that haven.

So the answer's simple. He doesn't deserve to get out.

Unfortunately, the law won't allow that. Now Wanganui people are suffering the impacts of a weak justice system that simply opens locked cell doors just because the sentence is over.

Prime Minister John Key has says Wilson can't spend any longer in jail, no matter how much we fear he will offend again. The Government says it is working on new legislation to stop extreme offenders being allowed out, despite serving their terms. Let's see if it is prepared to go out on a limb and actually push this law through.

Wilson's lawyer, Andrew McKenzie, told the High Court his client's release conditions were too strict. So much, in fact, that Wilson was better off in jail.

Now there's an idea.