Convicted sex offender Sir James Wallace faces being stripped of his knighthood, why the Government's being called out after another slip closes a critical part of State Highway 1 and the Prime Minister heads to Shanghai while securing extra flights to New Zealand in the latest headlines.
Video / NZ Herald / Getty / Supplied
A victim of jailed philanthropist Sir James Wallace says he warned people to avoid the rich-lister, but the New Zealand arts community enabled the offending.
Wallace, 85, was last week named as the prominent businessman who indecently assaulted three men and attempted to pervert the course of justice twice by offering bribes to dissuade one of his victims from testifying against him.
Today, musician and Dunedin bar owner Dudley Benson took to social media after he and the other victims sought had their statutory name suppression lifted by the High Court.
Benson described what he called a “despicable saga” to eventually name Wallace, whom he called a “predator”.
At the time Benson was assaulted, in 2008, he was an aspiring musician and had written to Wallace seeking funding for a concert tour, he told the court during the 2021 High Court trial.
Wallace invited Benson as a sole guest to meet with him at Rannoch, in Epsom, and asked him to stay for dinner, the court heard. Wallace then took him on a tour of the artworks displayed in the house, which ended in Wallace’s bedroom.
Benson told the court he began to feel dizzy before Wallace indecently assaulted him.
“I don’t remember how, but I escaped from him, found a phone and called a taxi,” Benson said on Twitter today.
“By the time I was home I could hardly stand, couldn’t speak and vomited. It sounds crazy, but it didn’t occur to me for several weeks that I had been drugged. Who would do that? At a meeting?”
Dunedin bar owner and musician Dudley Benson called Sir James Wallace a "super-predator". Photo / Supplied
During the trial, Wallace denied drugging any of his victims at his home. Wallace also provided a letter to police through his lawyer claiming to have no recollection of meeting Benson and denying what the musician described.
“Over the next 10 years, I told people what had happened and to stay away from Wallace,” Benson said today.
“I laboured over it, but eventually went to the police ... because I’d heard that someone else had laid a complaint and that charges were underway. I hoped my story would support them.”
Sir James Wallace's Epsom mansion Rannoch is filled with artwork. Photo / Supplied
Benson said Wallace is “extremely wealthy” - his estimated net worth in NBR’s 2020 rich list was about $170 million - and had used his legal resources to keep his identity secret until last week.
The Herald and Stuff have fought in the courts to have Wallace’s suppression revoked for six years.
Benson added: “My last duty in this whole despicable saga is to make public what the super-predator James Wallace has done, and how he has been enabled by the complicity of the NZ arts world. I’m now working through the best way to do this.”
Sir James Wallace at the Auckland High Court for sentencing. Photo / Michael Craig
Throughout the criminal proceedings, Wallace continued to enjoy his association with the arts industry and was involved in funding several projects while attending fashionable events.
Some of New Zealand’s leading artistic institutions have, however, been distancing themselves from the disgraced patron.
Wallace is a founding patron or funder of New Zealand Opera, the Auckland Theatre Company, the Royal NZ Ballet and the ASB Waterfront Theatre - home to the Auckland Theatre Company. He has estimated he and the trust spend about $2m per year on the arts, which led to him being knighted for services to the industry in 2011.
The James Wallace Arts Trust Collection had loaned many works from its about $50m gallery for public viewing, including to Government House, the Supreme Court, universities, Auckland’s exclusive The Northern Club and Wallace’s alma mater King’s College.
Sir James Wallace was named as the prominent businessman jailed for sexual offending and attempting to pervert the course of justice. Illustration / Rod Emmerson
The Supreme Court had five Wallace artworks inside, and a spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Justice told the Herald last week it will consider the future of the artworks housed within the building in Wellington.
The Royal NZ Ballet, which The James Wallace Arts Trust was a ‘founding partner’ of, has not accepted a grant since 2018.
Auckland Theatre Company, and ASB Waterfront Theatre, also said they had “severed ties with Wallace several years ago” and “his name was removed from our organisation and from our theatre”.
“Wallace’s crimes are appalling, and I condemn them in the strongest terms,” said artistic director and chief executive Jonathan Bielski. “Those who came forward to police to report what happened to them acted with extraordinary courage to tell their story.”
New Zealand Opera said no donations have been accepted from Wallace and its relationship ceased “since we became aware of allegations through media reporting”.
Auckland Council has also said it will continue to house the numerous artworks that were in the James Wallace Arts Trust Collection at the Pah Homestead in Auckland’s Monte Cecilia Park, which is owned by Auckland Council and open to the public.
Sir James Wallace leaving the High Court at Auckland after being found guilty of indecent assault and attempting to pervert the course of justice. Photo / Sam Hurley
Auckland Council director of customer and community services Dr Claudia Wyss told the Herald last week the council has “resettled the collection and severed its connections with James Wallace”. Auckland Council has reassigned its agreements to the new trust, The Arts House Trust.
“While we recognise that this is a very sensitive matter, we believe the artists and artworks, and the public, should not be penalised by the abhorrent actions of an individual,” Wyss said.
Wyss said although the collection had its origins with Wallace, it has been “enhanced and managed by a wider group of people focused on supporting New Zealand art and artists”.
He was ordered to report to the Department of Corrections at Mount Eden Prison on February 21 and is now serving his prison sentence. Further appeals to the Supreme Court by Wallace have also been dismissed.
Wallace has always vehemently denied the allegations against him and claimed to be the victim of blackmail and the #MeToo campaign.
Wallace’s business manager and entertainer Mika X, who appeared in the Oscar-winning film The Piano, were charged with attempting to dissuade the 2016 victim from giving evidence at Wallace’s trial.
Mika pleaded guilty and the manager was found guilty alongside Wallace in 2021. Both were sentenced to home detention.
Sam Hurley is a news director and senior reporter. He joined the Herald in 2017 and has previously worked for 1News and Hawke’s Bay Today. He has been investigating Sir James Wallace since 2018.
