NDIS for predator Wayne Wilmot in Janine Balding killing
One of the country’s worst serial sex offenders, who was involved in the brutal 1980s abduction, rape and murder of Janine Balding, is set to be released from custody with the help of an NDIS support package.
Wayne Wilmot, a remorseless criminal with psychopathic traits who poses a “significant risk” of carrying out further attacks on women, will be freed under tight supervision and electronic monitoring.
The NSW Supreme Court heard he had obtained NDIS support including eight hours of help each week with daily life, and 16 hours of weekly assistance with “economic and community participation” along with access to behaviour and health support professionals.
This is despite past treatment and rehabilitation efforts in prison that had resulted in “no meaningful gains’’ because Wilmot, now aged in his early 50s, has been resistant to help.
It is unclear how NDIS support workers would be protected and the case will only add to pressure on the Albanese government over violent criminals accessing the disability scheme. The Australian has recently reported that Labor has ordered the National Disability Insurance Agency to consider changing protocols to ban participants with a history of violent crimes from self-managing their plans following revelations that another rapist had been using his plan to seek out young fit female support workers.
In the Wilmot case, Justice Helen Wilson noted a forensic psychologist’s report that found he had little or no capacity to regulate his own conduct and had no concern or empathy for others. He felt entitled to “simply take whatever he wants’’ and was “supportive of sexual violence towards women, deeming them to deserve sexual violence depending upon their clothing, level of intoxication, or perceived permissiveness”, the court heard.
The psychologist concluded he was at high risk of committing further violent offences and posed a “well above average” risk of sexual reoffending.
At age 15, Wilmot was involved with four others in the abduction of Balding. While the court found he did not take part in her murder, he was convicted of kidnapping and raping the 20-year-old bank teller, who was snatched outside a Sydney railway station in 1988 in a crime that stained the nation. (The prosecution did not allege Wilmot raped her, but he was held liable due to his participation in the criminal enterprise.)
Wilmot was released on parole in 1996 but attacked another four women before he was imprisoned again in 1998. In a prior judgment, Justice Julia Lonergan noted that the attacks were brazen and in public. “He does not seem to care about being caught,” Justice Lonergan said.
“The attacks are highly distressing and degrading and cause long-term harm to victims.”
“Supervision will be at a high level, with the defendant required to adhere to a schedule of movements, observe a curfew (9pm to 6am), and wear an electronic monitoring device,’’ Justice Wilson said.
NSW Corrective Services have been preparing Wilmot for his eventual release into the community by arranging supervised accommodation, facilitating work readiness and familiarising him with community expectations.
The court heard last year that authorities were having trouble finding any supervised accommodation services that would have him. In jail he has been designated an extreme high-security prisoner.
Justice Wilson said that despite the level of assistance provided to Wilmot, significant concerns remained. “He has no insight into the risk he poses to others, and refused to acknowledge a need for risk management strategies,” the judge said.
....
In 1999 a psychiatrist asked Wilmot if he thought it was all right to sexually assault a woman. He replied: “You’re looking at it in the law’s kind of way. In the law’s way it wouldn’t be right, but if you’ve had a hard time with women growing up, you’d probably think in your own mind it was all right.”
Psychiatric testing put his IQ at 74, below average, and he was found to have a severe personality disorder with psychopathic traits.
“It is unclear what specifically drives his sexual offending although the nature of his offending suggests that he may experience sexual arousal in response to the pain or suffering of others,’’ according to one psychiatric assessment.
On another occasion he was asked to comment about the people who had been affected by his offences. He replied: “Well in my case, all three women are victims, and also me because I have realised that I have a problem with women by attacking them. And also thinking of them in a sexual nature. So I am a victim of my past which has led me to be where I am today and trying to get help from my problems so there will be no more victims.’’
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/ndis-for-predator-wayne-wilmot-in-janine-balding-killing/news-story/06c51efff43c4a50df885b5a4839f5a4
