Serial rapist back behind bars for kidnapping in Balding

One of the men convicted of kidnapping and raping Sydney bank employee Janine Balding before her murder in the late 1980s is back in custody less than two weeks after his release from prison.

When 51-year-old Wayne Wilmot was released from prison in early June, he was given a restraining order that included electronic monitoring and a curfew.

He was also banned from accessing pornographic material and refraining from using illegal drugs.

However, the violent sex offender was re-arrested on Friday after allegedly violating the terms of the court order.

Wilmot did not apply for bail when he appeared before Waverley Local Court.

He is scheduled to appear again in the same court on July 5.

Wilmot is due to return to the New South Wales Supreme Court next week after being released from custody on conditions.

A judge said in April that the restraining orders were essential to protect the community and contain the significant risk he posed, particularly given the possibility that he could commit another serious sexual offense.

In a report to the court, a forensic psychologist stated that Wilmot was likely to commit “a penetrative sexual assault on a young woman previously unknown to him.”

“Any crime would likely be impulsive, opportunistic and directed against a vulnerable woman,” the report said.

The risk of such a scenario occurring is “far above average,” and the risk of committing violent crimes again is “even higher.”

Wilmot was one of five homeless teenagers convicted in connection with the kidnapping of Ms Balding in 1988. The case shocked the nation because of the brutality and age of the perpetrators.

The 20-year-old bank employee was repeatedly gang-raped before being tied up, gagged and held underwater in a reservoir until she drowned.

It turned out that Wilmot, then 15, was not involved in the murder, but was sentenced to eight years in prison for the kidnapping and rape.

Before the attack on Ms Balding, he was found guilty of two other violent sexual assaults on women in public places.

After his release on parole in 1996, Wilmot robbed one female victim and abused another.

In 2023, while in prison, Wilmot was acquitted of two separate charges related to sex offenses and was granted a restraining order that was extended many times to allow him to remain in prison.

Psychological testing of Wilmot in 2019 revealed that he has an IQ of only 74 and is extremely callous, manipulative and deceitful, consistent with psychopathy.

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