An Ōpōtiki man convicted of sexually violating seven young girls across almost two decades lost his bid for permanent name suppression at sentencing.

Jared Allan Guiney Wilson, 38, was sentenced in Tauranga District Court last month before Judge Paul Geoghegan. He was imprisoned for eight years and nine months.

Wilson was due to go to trial in July, having pleaded not guilty to five charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, one charge of indecent assault on a child, two charges of indecent assault on a young person and two charges of sexual conduct with a young person.

He changed his pleas to guilty three weeks before the trial was due to begin, more than two years after he was charged.

Judge Geoghegan said although the defendant’s plea change meant the victims did not have to give evidence at trial, they would have suffered significant stress in anticipation of having to do so.

Wilson was aged between 18 and 36 when he offended against the victims, who ranged in ages from five to 13 years old. Three of the victims were siblings.

Wilson knew his victims through familial connections and the horse-riding community.

They were all either staying with Wilson or entrusted into his care during the offending.

One victim regarded the defendant as family and frequently stayed overnight at his home.

She awoke to find his hand between her buttocks and on another occasion, him pulling the collar of her shirt back to look at her breasts. Other offending involved Wilson touching and rubbing his victims’ genitals, digital penetration and making one girl touch his erection. He had to remove one child’s pull-up nappy to carry out his offending.

Judge Geoghegan said a common theme among the victims was that they were confused by Wilson’s actions and never told anyone about it.

Wilson had no previous convictions. Restorative justice was not possible.

Judge Geoghegan said the inevitable outcome of sentencing was imprisonment.

He referred to a pre-sentence report which said Wilson fluctuated between tentative admissions of guilt and outright denials when discussing his offending.

“You made comments to absolve yourself of guilt, stating that the allegations against you were fabricated by your victims and their families.

“Furthermore, you said that you were concerned that if you went to trial a jury would likely believe your victims over you, therefore you would inevitably be found guilty and receive a longer sentence.

“Conversely, says the report, you made subtle admissions of guilt, stating that you had decided to plead guilty to spare your victims having to go through a trial and that you wanted them to be able to start healing.”

Judge Geoghegan said the conflicting statements were not indicative of genuine remorse.

He said Wilson was starting out on a rehabilitative process which involved coming to grips firstly with the enormity of his offending and accepting responsibility for it.

Wilson denied to report writers that he was sexually attracted to children of any age or gender.

He offered to pay $10,000 in emotional harm payments to each victim, but Judge Geoghegan gave that no weight in sentencing, because the payments were dependent on the future sale of a farm he owns with his long-term partner.

Wilson sought permanent name suppression and was denied.

Judge Geoghegan said the victims and their whānau were strongly opposed to further suppression of Wilson’s name.

The judge made clear that there was no evidence to suggest the defendant’s long-term partner knew about the offending.

He was aware by her affidavit that she had faced scrutiny, speculation and accusations from the community.

“That may be difficult for some people to accept, but in fact, the reality of this sort of offending is that it is conducted in plain sight.

“It is undertaken by people who are trusted by others, whether they be partners, spouses or members of the family.

“It is that trust which enables this offending to occur and that is why people very close to an offender often have no idea of what is happening.”

Judge Geoghegan said Wilson’s name and offending were a “very public secret” and final name suppression was not realistic or practical.

“In fact, my view of the matter is that continuing speculation and continuing gossip may be even worse for your partner than the publication of the details of your offending.”

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