Serial rapist jailed for searching for extreme online porn scene

One of the men convicted of kidnapping and raping Sydney bank employee Janine Balding before her murder in the late 1980s has been sent back to prison, a place a judge believes is where he better belongs.

When Wayne Wilmot left prison in early 2024, he was given strict conditions, including being required to be under electronic monitoring and not have access to pornographic material.

However, the violent sex offender was re-incarcerated eleven days later for violating the terms of the court order.

Wilmot pleaded guilty on July 5 to violating a restraining order after attempting to access online pornography, much of which was extreme in nature.

Judge Jacqueline Milledge sentenced Wilmot to a further 18 months in prison during a hearing at Waverley Local Court on Tuesday.

The 51-year-old’s lawyer, Dev Bhutani, said his client has been in custody almost continuously since he was 15. According to the judge, he belongs there because of his criminal past.

Ms Milledge described Wilmot’s violent sexual offences as “quite worrying, if not frightening”.

The court heard that the material Wilmot sought access to included underage women and hardcore material.

“This is very, very worrying,” Ms Milledge said.

“He has gained access to major hardcore porn sites that involve not only sexual activity but also sexual gang activity.”

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.

While acknowledging that prison was the only possible punishment for the latest offence, Mr Bhutani called for a “short, tough” sentence in the region of six months.

Before the attack on Ms Balding, Wilmot carried out three other brutal sexual assaults on women in public places.

After being released on parole in 1996, Wilmot robbed one female victim and raped another.

In 2023, he was acquitted of two counts of sex offenses while in custody and was granted a restraining order that was extended enough times to allow him to remain in prison.

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

Since he was 15, he has spent less than two years out of prison.