Ian Wilson appears at Auckland District Court for sentencing in 2021. Photo / NZME

'He's a monster:' Victim fights for prolific Dilworth paedophile to stay behind bars

Author: Ric Stevens,
Publish Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2025, 8:51pm

This article discusses sexual abuse and possible suicides by victims. It may be distressing for some readers.

Neil Harding says the number of former Dilworth School pupils who have died by suspected suicide ‘keeps growing’.
Ian Wilson, a former housemaster, is serving five and a half years for sexually assaulting 10 boys.
Wilson appeared before the Parole Board today and has been declined parole for the fifth time.

A survivor of Dilworth School believes more than 39 former pupils have taken their own lives following the decades of abuse that went on there.

The number of suspected suicides was provided to the Parole Board by Neil Harding when he explained why his sexual abuser, former Dilworth housemaster Ian Wilson, should remain in prison.

Wilson, 73, has been in prison since 2021 and was turned down for parole for the fifth time on Tuesday.

“He is a monster,” Harding said in a statement he read to the Parole Board and also made available to NZME.

“Originally, I mentioned that nine of the boys who were allegedly sexually abused at Dilworth School had subsequently committed suicide,” he told the board on his fifth appearance to oppose Wilson’s release.

“I then learned the number of suicide victims was 15, then 26, then 36.

“Now the number is upwards of 39,” Harding said.

Survivor Neil Harding's statutory name suppression has been waived. Photo / NZME

“The impact of [Wilson’s] abuse and the role he played is incalculable,” he said.

“He has not only irreparably damaged the lives of at least 10 of his own victims, destroying their innocence, he has contributed to the sexual abuse of hundreds of other boys in his 25 years at Dilworth School, one of the worst institutions in New Zealand’s history — thanks to him.

Harding told the board he believed “none of this has been reflected in his [prison] sentence”.

Wilson is currently serving back-to-back jail terms totalling five years and six months for indecently assaulting 10 boys between 1975 and the 1990s.

Questioned later about his comments on the suspected suicides, Harding, who has waived his statutory right to name suppression as the victim of a sexual crime, said the number was based on “hearsay” and he could not verify it with a list of names.

However, he added: “Each time I hear that number it seems to be growing.”

He said many of the old boys from the independent boarding school in Auckland disappeared. They didn’t just leave the school, they left New Zealand.

The body of one of his friends was later discovered in a dumpster in London. Another’s sole aspiration was to live in a shed in rural Australia.

The Parole Board confirmed on Tuesday Wilson’s latest bid for release had been declined.

He is next expected to appear before the board in August.

Harding said he was “extremely happy” at the decision to keep Wilson in prison.

“I’m very happy that New Zealand’s children are safer,” he told NZME.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care heard from 126 former Dilworth students who were sexually abused at the school, and said it was aware of another 49 — making a total of 175 victims.

The royal commission found “sexual abuse was committed consistently at Dilworth from the 1950s until 2005″.

Police have estimated 233 students were victims.

Another independent inquiry, led by Dame Silvia Cartwright, described the historical abuse at the school as a “catalogue of damage and injustice”.

Wilson, who has health conditions including prostate cancer and diabetes, worked at Dilworth from February 1971 until his resignation in December 1996.

He was arrested in 2020 as part of Operation Beverly, a long-running investigation into historical sexual abuse by several staff members at the boys-only school.

Wilson, a former housemaster and scouting volunteer, was jailed in March 2021 for three years and seven months for indecently assaulting five students between 1975 and 1992 — some of them more than once and over several years.

Wilson was still in jail when he had one year and 11 months added to his sentence in August 2023 after belatedly admitting to having abused five others.

He had previously been convicted in 1997 and fined $3000 for sexually offending against another student on an overnight trip to Dargaville in 1978.

Harding said that in addition to being a “prolific paedophile”, Wilson had played a significant role in covering up abuse by other staff.

“He was also sadistic and inhumane towards many other boys that he did not personally sexually abuse,” Harding said.

Ian Wilson photographed as a Dilworth teacher in 1975.

He also said that Wilson had previously lied to the Parole Board when he said he did not know of other victims than the five for whom he was originally sentenced, and that he stopped doing it after he got married.

Subsequently, in August 2023, he received more jail time for abuse of another five boys.

“One of them was abused three times a week for six years from 1988, well after he was married,” Harding said.

SEXUAL HARM

Where to get help:
If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk confidentially, any time 24/7:
• Call 0800 044 334
• Text 4334
• Email [email protected]
• For more info or to web chat visit safetotalk.nz
Alternatively contact your local police station - click here for a list.
If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it's not your fault.

MALE SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVORS

Where to get help:
If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
• If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone call the confidential crisis helpline Safe to Talk on 0800 044 334 or text 4334. (available 24/7)
• Male Survivors Aotearoa offers a range of confidential support at centres across New Zealand - find your closest one here.
• Mosaic - Tiaki Tangata: 0800 94 22 94 (available 11am-8pm)
• Alternatively contact your local police station - click here for a list.
If you have been abused, remember it's not your fault.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.