Wheelchair-using Northland rapist fails in bid to appeal his sentence

RNZ News

4 days ago

By Ric Stevens, Open Justice reporter of
Stephen Robert Wilson statutory release date is in March 2030.
Photo:
123RF
WARNING: This article deals with the topic of sexual offending and may be distressing for some readers.
Three-time convicted rapist Stephen Robert Wilson has used a wheelchair throughout all his years in prison.
Now, seven years into his sentence, he has tried to appeal his jail term, arguing that he should have received a lighter sentence because of his disability, which he said was caused by an injury he got in a prison van.
The Court of Appeal has turned him down, and in doing so has detailed a history of scepticism from people who have dealt with Wilson about whether his disability is genuine.
The Court of Appeal noted that "no physical origin" had been diagnosed for his symptoms, which doctors have suggested might have a psychological cause.
The Parole Board has also declined to release Wilson this year, more than halfway through his 12-year, eight-month jail term.
His statutory release date is in March 2030.
Wilson was found guilty at an October 2018 trial in the Whangārei District Court of raping three women.
He appeared before the jury in a wheelchair, saying he had hemiplegia - a paralysis on the right side of his body - caused by a head and spinal injury he received in 2016 when he struck the side of a prison van not long after his arrest that year.
Wilson said he only had the use of his left leg and left wrist as his right arm and leg, and his upper left arm, were paralysed. He also needed to wear adult diapers.
After the onset of his condition, Wilson spent about 10 months in hospital and then a rest home.
He was then in a high-dependency unit at Rimutaka Prison for more than a year before he was granted electronically monitored bail in the lead-up to his trial.
He has been in custody since his trial and said his condition made him vulnerable to assaults and bullying from other inmates.
Wilson has already tried to appeal his convictions unsuccessfully and sought leave from the Court of Appeal this year to appeal his sentence.
Usually, offenders have only 20 working days to appeal against their sentence.
However, Wilson sought leave from the court to do so after seven years, arguing he never knew he could challenge his punishment on the grounds of hardship because of a disability.
The sentencing judge did not give a discount for hardship and Wilson's lawyer didn't ask for one.
The judge said that a probation officer's pre-sentence report had noted that Wilson had "much more mobility than you have shown when you have been in court".
In seeking leave to appeal, Wilson allowed his lawyer to say why he did not seek a discount for the disability.
"I recall there was always scepticism by the court, the police and the prison towards Mr Wilson's condition," lawyer Wayne McKean told the appeal court.
"He did not get a lot of sympathy from prison staff while on remand."
Another lawyer, Phillip Osborne, who assisted with the appeal against conviction, said he was not sure what to make of Wilson's condition because he was aware that the Department of Corrections had alleged he did have movement in the right side of his body.
Corrections had produced a "movement log" to counter Wilson's assertions, he said.
"I had also read psychological reports which suggested that there was no physical cause for his illness," Osborne said.
The Court of Appeal justices said that two doctors who assessed Wilson's fitness for trial in 2018 considered he may have a conversion disorder or factitious disorder.
A conversion disorder is a psychiatric condition where people experience symptoms without medical cause.
A factitious disorder, formerly known as Munchausen syndrome, is a mental health condition where people display physical symptoms, sometimes to gain sympathy.
"One of the doctors considered that his presentation at that time may have been driven by distress at his imprisonment and the possibility of secondary gain from his symptoms," the Court of Appeal decision said.
"At that stage Mr Wilson was still being tested to exclude a physical origin for his symptoms.
"No physical origin for his symptoms has been diagnosed to date."
The Court of Appeal declined Wilson's leave to appeal his sentence.
The Parole Board declined to release Wilson in April.
It said he wanted to be released to the Northland region, where psychological services were limited and no counselling services were available to address his sexual offending.
The board said his release proposals could not be progressed because of the risk and the level of care he required.
During the Parole Board hearing, Wilson left the room and did not return.
The board is due to see him again in August.
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
This story originally appeared in the
New Zealand Herald
.