A notorious serial rapist, considered a significant threat to the safety of women and children, has recently been awarded a substantial annual funding package of $220,000 through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), even gaining permission to access explicit adult content while incarcerated.

Wayne Wilmot, now 53, was involved in a brutal crime spree that included the abduction, rape, and murder of Sydney bank teller Janine Balding in September 1988. Arrested at just 15 years old for his role in Balding’s murder, Wilmot has spent much of his life cycling in and out of prison.

His criminal history is marked by repeated violent sexual assaults, often committed while he was on parole or bail. In a recent ruling, the NSW Supreme Court highlighted the high likelihood of Wilmot reoffending, noting the potential for his crimes to involve severe violence and weapons, with victims potentially being children.

Justice Sarah McNaughton disclosed in her judgment that Wilmot secured NDIS funding, which will continue until June 2026. Last year, the scheme approved a 12-month plan amounting to $221,620.99, subject to annual reviews.

This funding is allocated to support services like Mates & Mentors, assisting Wilmot during his external leave from a prison halfway house where he resides. Additionally, he receives four hours of daily support, seven days a week, aimed at aiding his participation in social, economic, and community activities.

The funding covers Wilmot’s access to a support service, Mates & Mentors, while he is on external leave from the prison halfway house he is required to live in. He is also eligible for four hours of daily support ‘for assistance with social economic and community participation’, seven days a week. 

The judgment reveals that Wilmot can request to access pornography ‘or use the services of escorts or brothels’ subject to a supervising officer’s discretion. 

In mid-2024, according to a supervision order, Wilmot ‘accessed adult sex shops online and this appeared to manage his sexual urges.’ 

Wayne Wilmot was one of five people who abducted and raped bank teller Janine Balding, 20.  In September 1988 she was taken to a remote paddock and drowned in a dam

Wilmot, left, and Carol Anne Arrow (right) at Campbelltown Local Court in Sydney 1988, where they were both charged with five counts relating to Janine Balding’s death at Minchinbury

Now aged 53, Wayne Wilmot has a four decade-long history of sexual offending against women, but was granted access to NDIS funding and pornography while on release

His supervisors recommended he ‘purchase pornographic magazines from an adult bookstore’ instead of the pornography website he was interested in.

Days later, his supervisory officer found Wilmot had accessed without approval ‘very, very extreme’ pornographic material involving Asian people and teenagers.

It was on September 8, 1988 when a teenage Wilmot – who was on bail – and three other males aged 14 to 22 and a woman kidnapped Ms Balding at knifepoint from Sutherland Railway Station car park about 6pm. 

The 20-year-old was forced into her own car and driven down the M4 motorway by Wilmot to a remote spot in Minchinbury in western Sydney where she was sexually assaulted, hogtied, and gagged. 

Ms Balding was then carried to a dam where she was held down and drowned. The gang stole the jewellery off her body, and withdrew cash with her bank card. 

They were arrested within days and three of Wilmot’s co-accused were given life sentences plus 25 years.

Wilmot was charged with four counts of sexual intercourse without consent, and one each of robbery in company and detaining with intent to gain advantage.

He was sentenced to nine years and four months, with a seven-year minimum, and released on parole in October 1996.

Wayne Wilmot is led away at court after his arrest and charge over the abduction and rape of Janine Balding who was murdered and her body dumped in 1988

Wilmot denies his appalling history of offending and minimises his guilt from offences of raping Janine Balding (above) before her murder and robbing her body to assaulting other women at Sydney train stations

In 1997 he robbed and assaulted a woman in Ashfield, in inner-western Sydney, and in 1998 tied up and sexually assaulted a terrified 19-year-old female railway employee at Leightonfield Railway Station.

A few weeks later, he attempted to kidnap a young woman at Glenfield station, and was locked up.

But it was only via a 2004 DNA testing program for NSW Inmates that Wilmot’s semen was matched to the Leightonfield attack, and he was jailed in 2006 for a maximum of 12 years.

While in jail, he was convicted of sexually assaulting another inmate and committed further assaults on prisoners which he contended ‘were warranted’.

Wilmot was released on a supervision order in June 2024, but less than two weeks after his release breached the order with his extreme pornography video searches.

The Supreme Court has now returned Wilmot to custody for a year.

However he is living in Nunyara Community Offender Support Program (COSP), the halfway house attached to the back of Long Bay prison complex.

Wilmot is allowed external leave days and will undergo ‘a staged transition to the community’ over the next year.

Wayne ‘Shorty’ Jamieson, born with foetal alcohol syndrome, was convicted of Janine Balding’s murder and jailed for life. Now aged 59, he claims he was wrongly identified as the killer

Janine Balding was about to turn 21 and was engaged to be married when the bank teller was abducted while walking to her car at Sutherland Railway station 

Wilmot held a coveted position working in the COSP’s kitchen until he aggressively attacked another inmate. He now works in the facility’s laundry.  

One of Wilmot’s former cellmates reported being sexually assaulted by him. Wilmot has been charged in custody with intimidation, possession of prohibited weapons and assault.

The most recent assault allegation from November last year, that Wilmot headbutted and struck another inmate, was captured on CCTV. 

Justice McNaughton’s judgement includes a February 2026 report on Wilmot by court-appointed psychologist, Patrick Sheehan.

Mr Sheehan reported Wilmot’s ‘risk of a serious sex offence to be at the “high end of the risk spectrum” and that it was “very clear” he could not live in the community in the future without an Extended Supervision Order (ESO)’.

This might have to be with a ‘line-of-sight condition’, a costly provision which would require constant supervision. 

In 2024, Mr Sheehan found Wilmot ‘took almost no responsibility for his offence history relating to sexual violence … flatly denying’ the Janine Balding offence,  and ‘implying that his other convictions were also false, even those to which he (pleaded) guilty.’

Wilmot’s co-accused in the Balding attack, Wayne ‘Shorty’ Jamieson, was jailed for life and is now aged 59. He also denied culpability, claiming it was another person nicknamed ‘Shorty’ who perpetrated the murder. 

The court judgment said that Wilmot has impulsivity, anger and aggression issues, is deceitful, has reckless disregard for the safety of others and ‘he was unable to express any empathy or remorse’.

Wilmot has also been assessed as suffering from psychopathy and a psychologist said he was at ‘well above average risk for further sexual offending’ and ‘at a high risk for violent offending’.

Wilmot is due for release back into the community on March 19, 2027. On release, the court judgment further noted that ‘in the context of anticipated NDIS support in the community’ a warning had been issued about his behaviour on the outside.

A consultant neuropsychologist had stated that ‘NDIS Services rarely tolerate intimidating interactions that can’t be safely managed.

‘Failed community integration will isolate (Wilmot).’