Lawyer Talks Wilder Into Surrendering

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32382, 22 August 1970, Page 44

Lawyer Talks Wilder Into Surrendering

(New Zealand Press Association)

HAMILTON, August 21. A Rotorua lawyer, Mr G. T. O’Sullivan, today talked George Wilder into surrendering after armed police had surrounded a double-unit bach at Rotorua’s municipal camping ground. Mr O’Sullivan spent three-quarters of an hour with Wilder—who was armed with a 9 mm Browning automatic pistol—before he surrendered to Senior-Sergeant B. W.. Power and Detective Senior-Sergeant A. Jesson, of Rotorua.

Wilder this afternoon made a one-minute appearance in the Rotorua Magistrate’s Court, charged with breaching the terms of his probation, and was remanded without plea to appear in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court on Monday. He appealed handcuffed to a constable, and was represented by Mr O’Sullivan. Wilder, aged 32, unemployed, of no fixed abode, had been arrested on a warrant issued alleging a breach of probation at Kaikohe on July 15. Further charges could follow inquiries now being made by the police, it was said.

The Rotorua camp-site drama began at a a.m. when the police discovered that Wilder was in the bach. Five hours of talks with Wilder—talks which were punctuated with the barrel of the pistol held by Wilder—-

> followed. For Mr O’Sullivan it was a long three-quarters of ' an hour, as it had been long 1 hours for Detective Senior- ; Sergeant Jesson, officer in charge of the Rotorua C. 1.8. and Senior-Sergeant Power, i who had faced Wilder and his > gun from 6 a.m. to almost f 9 a.m. Holiday-makers had been

quietly cleared from the camp as members of the police Armed Offenders Squad surrounded Wilder’s bach. An armed constable also crept into the unoccupied section of the bach where Wilder was sheltering, and was able to observe Wilder’s movements through a crack in the wall. The police used a megaphone to communicate with Wilder and told him to surrender. He refused to do so, and asked to see his solicitor from Auckland. Negotiations between Wilder and the police then took place. Wilder later agreed to talk to Mr O’Sullivan. The police warned Mr O’Sullivan of possible danger but he entered the hut just after 9.15 a.m. About 45 minutes later he told the police that Wilder had put his gun down, and would surrender. At 9.50 a.m. Wilder emerged and was taken into custody. During the drama, Messrs Power and Jesson supplied cups of tea to Wilder. Steady rain fell throughout The police said later that Wilder was found after routine investigations into a burglary in the Rotorua district The police began looking for a stolen car, which was traced to the camp. This was at 3 a.m, but it was not known until 5 a.m. that the man in the bach was Wilder. During the time that fol-

lowed, police with drawn pistols took up positions round the bach less than 30 yards from the door.

A police dog, Ngata, was kept on a lead nearby. Wilder was released from Paparua Prison on parole on July 20, 1969, after having served eight years of a 19year sentence. A warrant for his arrest was issued on July 23 last when he failed to report to the probation officer.