Dilworth former assistant principal admits another raft of child sex abuse - Stuff

LAWRENCE SMITH/Stuff

Dilworth School's former assistant principal, Ian Robert Wilson at the Auckland District Court. (File photo)

Dilworth’s former assistant principal has admitted a raft of charges relating to him sexually abusing boys in his care.

Ian Robert Wilson, 71, appeared by audio-visual link from Waikeria Prison at the Auckland District Court on Thursday, and pleaded guilty to 11 charges of indecency on boys, two of indecently assaulting a boy and six charges of doing an indecent act on a boy.

The 19 charges span decades and relate to five former Dilworth boys. The offending happened on school trips and in a school house.

Wilson, who had a plaster on his left cheek and another on his right temple on Thursday, pleaded guilty in a thin voice.

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It is the third time he has been convicted for sexually abusing boys at Dilworth between the 1970s and 1990s.

Wilson was a history teacher and is fluent in te reo Māori. He was also a housemaster and a Scout leader and would regularly take boys away on Scouting trips.

He was first convicted in 1997. He was fined $3500.

But his name and connection to Dilworth were suppressed by a District Court judge.

Armed with a glowing reference from former Dilworth headmaster Murray Wilton, Wilson was able to later land a job with the Manukau Institute of Technology, where he continued to teach young people.

Abigail Dougherty/Stuff

Ian Robert Wilson is one of 11 men arrested and charged with sexually abusing boys at Dilworth School.

But two decades later, the police investigation into sexual offending at Dilworth uncovered further offending by Wilson.

In 2021, Wilson admitted sexually abusing five boys in his care.

One of the survivors of his offending, Neil Harding, has taken the rare step of revoking his statutory name suppression.

At Wilson’s sentencing in March 2021, Harding looked Wilson in the eye, telling the sex offender: “Did you not consider I’d grow up and remember your actions?

“Do you remember me or was I just one of many?”

Two years later, at his first appearance before the Parole Board, Wilson faced a barrage of questions from board members, who asked if there were further complainants to come forward.

There was a lengthy pause and an exhale of breath before Wilson answered: “Well, not that I’m aware of.”

But there were.

Four more men came forward to the police, reporting Wilson sexually abused them between the 1970s and 1990s.

Judge Kevin Glubb remanded Wilson in custody and set a sentencing date for August 28.

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Dilworth former assistant principal admits another raft of child sex abuse - Stuff
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