November 11 2020 | Seven men had been charged after an investigation into alleged historical sexual offending at Dilworth School. Video / New Zealand Police / File
Warning: This article discusses sexual assault and may be upsetting.
A former Dilworth housemaster and scouting volunteer who is still serving a prison sentence handed down in 2021 for the historical sexual abuse of five students had an additional prison term added today after belatedly admitting to having abused five others.
Authorities filed new charges against 71-year-old inmate Ian Robert Wilson last November, but the Herald was unable to report that at the time for legal reasons.
This time, he returned to Auckland District Court via an audio-video feed from prison.
“Offending of this nature is abhorrent,” Judge Belinda Sellars told him as she ordered a sentence of 1 year and 11 months to be stacked on top of the term of three years and seven months he is already serving. “Your abuse of trust was extreme.”
The judge told victims in attendance and watching remotely via audio-video feed that she was limited in the sentence she could give because of the term Wilson is already serving.
“But I do not in any way seek to minimise what I’m dealing with today,” she emphasised.
Had Wilson been sentenced for all 10 victims at once, he would have had a starting point of 10 years, the judge decided. After reductions for his guilty pleas, his various health conditions, his remorse and other factors, the end sentence would have been five years and six months, she said.
Today’s cumulative sentence, which the Crown and the defence were in agreement on, serves the same purpose by adding to what he’s already serving.
Wilson was arrested in 2020 as part of Operation Beverly, a long-running investigation into historical sexual abuse at the Auckland-based boys-only boarding school. In the 1980s, communication between students and their families was limited and so staff often served as de facto family, numerous judges have noted at sentencing hearings over the past two years.
Wilson worked at Dilworth from February 1971 until his resignation in December 1996.
During today’s hearing, Crown prosecutor Jacob Barry said the addition of the new victims places Wilson “at the most serious end of the Operation Beverly defendants” - in the company of chaplain Ross Browne, who was sentenced in December 2021 to six and a half years’ prison for the abuse of 14 victims, and teacher Robert Wynyard, who was sentenced in February to six years and three months’ imprisonment.
Defence lawyer Mark Edgar submitted a letter of remorse to the judge. It was not read aloud in court and has not yet been seen by Wilson’s victims, but the lawyer said it “acknowledges the profound harm his offending has caused them”. Edgar also submitted to the court a letter from the Dilworth Independent Inquiry noting that the defendant has indicated his willingness to be interviewed.
It had been more than 25 years since his client’s last offence, Edgar also contended before noting a series of health conditions his client suffers including heart disease, prostate cancer and diabetes. Wilson was hospitalised two weeks ago with a liver condition “which ultimately will kill him”, he said. He wants to serve his sentence so he can return to caring for his wife, who suffers from dementia, he said.
Today is the third time Wilson has been in court to be sentenced for historical sexual abuse charges.
Ian Robert Wilson, right, after an earlier appearance in the Auckland District Court. Photo / Michael Craig
He was fined $3000 in 1997 for indecently assaulting a student on an overnight trip to Dargaville 19 years earlier. However, he and the school were granted name suppression at the time. It wouldn’t become public until nearly 25 years later, following his second sentencing, which resulted from Operation Beverly.
At that second sentencing, in March 2021, he was imprisoned for the indecent assaults of five students between 1975 and 1992. Some of the victims were abused repeatedly over the course of several years.
“This school was intended to provide a sanctuary away from what were often difficult times at home for these children,” prosecutors said at the time. “It was a perfect storm for Wilson to take advantage of and offend against these children.”
Since then, Wilson has twice had his requests for parole declined. He won’t be eligible for another parole hearing until November - although that date is now likely to be pushed back due to the new sentence.
Victim Neil Harding, who waived his automatic right to suppression, urged the parole board last November to keep him behind bars longer. He said he felt Wilson was yet to show any real remorse and posed a continuing threat to the public.
Harding initially went to police in the 1990s, not knowing that Wilson had recently been found guilty but granted name suppression for the first case. He told the Herald previously that a detective turned him away, causing him to lose faith in the justice system until the launch of Operation Beverly two decades later.
Although not a victim in the latest batch of charges, Harding returned to court today to support other men who have come forward. Judge Sellars heard from one of the men directly and three others had their victim impact statements read aloud by prosecutors.
“Ian, I hope you can hear me, I hope you can remember me,” said the man who gave his victim impact statement in person, having flown over from Australia for the hearing. “We were children when we were put into your care and what did you do? We know what you did.”
The man was 16 years old in 1978 when Wilson, his teacher and tutor, preyed on him.
“You robbed me of a lot of things,” he said, explaining that he has since then found it difficult to love and trust others.
Another victim, whose abuse began at age 8, said he was already in an incredibly vulnerable state when he came to live at Dilworth. He was already shy, scared and had his confidence eroded when he was told to put his trust in school officials, he said.
“I imagine that these attributes made me a perfect target,” he said of the abuse, which lasted from 1971 to 1975.
A third victim was between the ages of 12 and 13 when Wilson lured him to his home in 1992 after a Scouts meeting.
“All I wanted in my young life was a male figure to look up to,” the man wrote in his victim impact statement. “I felt betrayed.”
A fourth victim, who was targeted between the ages of 11 and 12 years old in the late 1970s, agreed with other victims that the offending has had a lasting impact on his ability to trust others.
“You corrupted my innocence,” he wrote, adding that Wilson sought to “undermine and degrade me for your own selfish ends”.
“I suggest you pray to your god for forgiveness ... because I cannot forgive you,” he said.
A fifth victim was abused more than 100 times - at one point, up to three times per week - over the course of six years starting in 1988.
In all, Wilson faced 19 new charges today - all representative - for the five victims.
At least 30 people have been accused of historical sexual abuse at Dilworth in the three years since Operation Beverly was launched, including 14 allegations of “student on student” offending, police have previously revealed to the Herald. More than 150 men have made allegations spanning five decades, from the 1960s to the early 2000s.
Not all of the allegations have resulted in arrests. Nine suspects died before the investigation began. But 11 former staff members have been arrested so far. Three of them have died.
In a media statement released after today’s hearing, Dilworth Trust Board chairman Aaron Snodgrass said he hoped the additional convictions serve as “a further step towards justice and healing for his victims”.
“Ian Wilson’s offending was a gross breach of trust, particularly from someone who held a senior role at our school,” the statement read. “The impact of his offending on the lives of former students who were abused, their families and whānau, and our wider community, has been far-reaching.
“The abuse was unacceptable and should never have happened. On behalf of the school, we apologise to the former students who were abused while at Dilworth. We commend the courage of those men who came forward resulting in today’s sentencing.”
The Dilworth Independent Inquiry was expected to release its findings next month, and the board would listen carefully to the findings and recommendations, he said.
Snodgrass encouraged any former student who needs assistance to email assist@dobsupport.com for free, confidential psychological support services.
Wilson’s victim who spoke in person at court today said he believes other victims are out there who have not yet been acknowledged.
“If you have the strength, please come forward,” he said.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
