{"id":167166,"date":"2025-12-04T04:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T04:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/167166\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T04:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T04:35:07","slug":"serial-child-sex-abuser-gary-claude-wilson-found-guilty-of-33-offences-in-whangarei-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/167166\/","title":{"rendered":"Serial child-sex abuser Gary Claude Wilson found guilty of 33 offences in Whang\u0101rei trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

He also took him to his home in Hikurangi<\/a> and would offer him money, cigarettes and alcohol in return for sexual acts.<\/p>\n

But it took 20 years for the victim to come forward, during which time Wilson<\/a> was convicted of sexually abusing two other boys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2011, he was convicted of assaulting an 8-year-old boy known to him.<\/p>\n

At that time, Wilson had convinced the parent to let him take her son to a park, saying his grandchildren would be there and they could play together.<\/p>\n

On the way, he indecently assaulted<\/a> the boy.<\/p>\n

At the park, there were no other children and, after only a few minutes of playing, he told the boy they had to leave. The child immediately disclosed the assault to his mother.<\/p>\n

Then, in 2017, he was convicted of offending against another boy who was also known to him.<\/p>\n

On that occasion, he took the boy on a trip and suggested that, if he ever needed money, he should ask. <\/p>\n

That sparked at least four incidents during which he instructed the boy to perform sexual acts for money.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Wilson<\/a> was taken into the Manukau police station twice in relation to the recent allegations by the third victim. <\/p>\n

On the first visit, he was sent home as he had Covid. On the second, he signed a statement agreeing that he had taken the victim for drives in his car. <\/p>\n

The officer who took the statement gave evidence at Wilson\u2019s trial that he was coherent and understood what he was signing. <\/p>\n

\"CrownCrown solicitor Richard Annandale led the case against Gary Claude Wilson. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

However, Wilson gave evidence that he could not remember signing the statement and that he did not take the complainant in his car.<\/p>\n

When pressed under cross-examination by Crown lawyer Richard Annandale, Wilson said he never should have told the police officer that.<\/p>\n

He said that he had Covid at the time, so he did not know what he was doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you trying to use Covid to explain away what you admitted to the police?\u201d Annandale asked.<\/p>\n

Wilson did not respond.<\/p>\n

Annandale listed Wilson\u2019s prior convictions, to which Wilson responded, \u201cI didn\u2019t do any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean? You\u2019ve been before the courts twice on two separate boys. Are you saying you don\u2019t remember being convicted and sentenced for those matters?\u201d Annandale asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t remember, no,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe jury at the Whang\u0101rei District Court returned guilty verdicts this week. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Annandale put it to Wilson that he was using memory loss as an excuse, and that he actually did remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cNah, I don\u2019t know,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n

In the Crown\u2019s closing address, Annandale said the victim was reliable and credible.<\/p>\n

He also pointed out the similarities between Wilson\u2019s latest and previous offending.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Wilson had opportunity, he had inclination, he offended against [suppressed].\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Muston, Wilson\u2019s lawyer, said his client outrightly denied all allegations.<\/p>\n

Muston also said that, given Wilson\u2019s age, he was likely to agree with propositions put to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to suggest to you that Mr Wilson is a person who would make mistakes when he was talking to people in authority,\u201d Muston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one person\u2019s word against another; this offending never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the jury believed the victim\u2019s evidence, and Wilson was convicted of all 33 charges.<\/p>\n

He will be sentenced in January.<\/p>\n

Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He also took him to his home in Hikurangi and would offer him money, cigarettes and alcohol in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51582,1903,29768,9092,1061,108982,7705,181,1874,35369,3368,78,111,43,139,69,1118,30083,21413,17703,427,1961,54,1455,1869,6038],"class_list":["post-167166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-51582","tag-abuse","tag-abuser","tag-against","tag-children","tag-childsex","tag-claude","tag-details","tag-found","tag-gary","tag-guilty","tag-in","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-offences","tag-serial","tag-sexual","tag-story","tag-this","tag-trial","tag-warning","tag-whangrei","tag-wilson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}