One of the men convicted over the shocking abduction and rape of Sydney bank teller Janine Balding has been handed the maximum sentence for a “concerning” breach days after his latest release.
Wayne Wilmot, 51, was placed under strict monitoring when he left jail earlier in 2024 and was required not to access pornographic material.
But the violent sexual offender was locked up again 11 days later after breaching conditions imposed by the court.
Wilmot pleaded guilty on July 5 to breaching an interim supervision order after seeking to access online pornography, much of which was of an extreme nature.
Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge on Tuesday sentenced Wilmot to a further 18 months in jail during a hearing in Waverley Local Court.
She described Wilmot’s long history of violent sexual offending as “quite worrying – if not frightening”.
Graphic searches made by Wilmot were uncovered by his supervising officer after he requested help deleting his browser history in order to make his phone work better, according to court documents.
Searches made by Wilmot included “extreme hardcore teen sex video porn videos” and “very very extreme hard f*** porn videos”.
There were also searches of a fetish nature and specifying an interest in girls as young as 14.
“This is very, very concerning,” Ms Milledge said.
“He’s got on to significant hardcore porn sites … not only involving sexual activity, but gang sexual activity.”
The 51-year-old’s lawyer, Dev Bhutani, said his client had been in custody almost continuously since he was 15, which the magistrate said was where he belonged based on his criminal history.
Ms Milledge noted Mr Bhutani’s submission that his client is”pretty much institutionalised”, meaning he would struggle to return to life outside jail.
Wilmot was one of five homeless youths convicted over the 1988 abduction of Ms Balding, a case that stunned the nation due to the brutality involved and the age of the offenders.
The 20-year-old bank teller was repeatedly gang raped before being bound, gagged and held underwater in a dam until she drowned.
Wilmot, who was 15 at the time, was found not to have taken part in the murder, but was sentenced to eight years in prison over the abduction and rape.
Mr Bhutani conceded a jail term was the only available punishment for the latest breach, mature sex but called for a “short, sharp” sentence in the vicinity of six months.
Police prosecutor Nicole McMahon said Wilmot should be given the maximum sentence in order to protect the community.
“The accused is clearly an extremely high risk to the community,” Sergeant McMahon said.
“I submit that the longer that Mr Wilmot is detained, the longer the community at large will be protected.”
Before the attack on Ms Balding, Wilmot committed three other violent sexual assaults on women in public places.
After being released on parole in 1996, Wilmot robbed one female victim and assaulted another.
In 2023, he was acquitted of two separate charges related to sexual offending while in custody and was placed under an interim detention order, which was extended by the maximum number of times to keep him in jail.
Psychological assessments conducted on Wilmot in 2019 found he had an IQ of just 74 and was highly callous, manipulative and deceptive, consistent with psychopathy.
He has spent less than two years out of custody since the age of 15.
The Supreme Court is still due to deliver a ruling on whether Wilmot will face ongoing restrictions as a high-risk offender.
Those proceedings started before his latest conviction.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
