The end of the long and tortuous road to revealing multi-millionaire James Wallace as a convicted sex offender will be a tipping point. It will be the final straw in a growing stack of calls for reform of a system that allows the rich to use court processes to hide from the public.
Suppression of Wallace’s name was finally lifted last week after he exhausted his last avenue of appeal – the Supreme Court – and the public learned he was the “prominent businessman” now serving a prison sentence of two years and four months for sexual offences against three young men.
Three of New Zealand’s metropolitan newspapers led their front pages with the news that he could be named. ‘Knighted arts patron named as sex offender’ said the New Zealand Herald, while the Waikato Times baldly declared ‘Predator’s name revealed’, and The Press disclosed Wallace was the ‘Jailed businessman behind restoration’ of an inner-Christchurch mansion.
Wallace, who was first charged in February 2017, used every avenue of appeal against conviction, sentence, and name suppression. Had our judicial system still allowed appeals to the Privy Council in London, he would doubtless have sought that avenue as well. He could afford the legal costs: The ‘rich-lister’ is said to be worth $165 million.
And, of course, the Covid pandemic – when court activity was reduced to a minimum – further stretched his period of anonymity. Continue reading “Name suppression: Wallace’s wallet hid the truth”
