• Wayne Paul Henry has been sentenced to 23 years’ imprisonment for victimising four people over three decades. 
• It’s his second time before the courts, after two others came forward in 2005. 
• Justice David Johnstone declined a preventive detention request, citing decreased risk as Henry ages. 

A former Auckland foster carer and serial sexual predator has been ordered to serve 23 years’ imprisonment after his recent convictions for victimising four more people over three decades. 

But Wayne Paul Henry, whose victims included a mother and daughter, targeted separately when they each were teens, successfully fought an effort by the Crown to impose a rare indefinite sentence. 

The Auckland resident, now 56, will be 77 when his sentence ends in 2046, Justice David Johnstone pointed out yesterday as he declined to impose preventive detention. 

Although considered a high risk of reoffending now, that danger to the community is likely to decrease as he ages, the judge said. 

The 23-year term included the stacking of some sentences rather than allowing them to be served concurrently. The judge also ordered Henry to remain imprisoned for at least 12 and a half years before he can begin applying for parole. 

“The predatory nature of your conduct requires condemnation,” the judge said, citing the “large scale” of his offending and the “extreme depravity”. 

“Your life ... was a lie.” 

‘Stole my innocence’ 

An Auckland District Court jury found Henry guilty in November of 18 sexual offences. District Court Judge Kirsten Lummis, who oversaw the trial, then transferred the case to the High Court at Auckland for sentencing so that preventive detention could be considered. 

Henry’s first offence took place in the early 1990s, when he lured a mate’s 14-year-old girlfriend into a bus he said he was going to convert into a home. Once alone, he raped her as she cried and said no. He was 10 years her senior. 

He re-victimised her about four years later, after circumstances put them into proximity of each other again. 

Justice David Johnstone presides over a hearing in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Michael Craig 

The victim, now 47, confronted him yesterday as she read an impact statement in court. She continues to live with debilitating fear, she said. 

“Mr Henry stole my childhood innocence from me at the age of 14,” she said, explaining that she had been caring and open-minded about the world before the first incident. “Mr Henry took everything from me on the day he raped me.” 

Alcohol, she said, became her best friend. 

“I chose to live my life numb,” she said. “Numb, for me, was my safe place.” 

Giving evidence against Henry at trial, she said, was one of the hardest things she has had to do. But it “has given me strength and it has given me back my power”, she said. 

‘Don’t believe he’ll ever stop’ 

Henry spent years grooming his next two victims. He abused them repeatedly in homes in the early 2000s, starting when the girls were 12 and 15 years old. 

Both victims were described as vulnerable. They had come to trust Henry, who “exercised an extraordinary degree of influence and control” over them, the judge said. 

“You told her not to tell anyone, and if she did you would deny it and no one would believe her,” Justice Johnstone said of the first time Henry raped the younger girl. “You preyed upon her social insecurity.” 

The younger victim submitted an impact statement to the judge but it was not read aloud in court. The older victim attended the hearing but asked a prosecutor to read her statement aloud for her. 

“He knew I was from a broken home,” she wrote, adding that Henry used that background to prey on her. “He isolated us in order to have control.” 

Since that time, she said, she had been diagnosed with PTSD and suffers anxiety and panic attacks. 

“The abuse destroyed my sense of safety,” she said. “I have horrible flashbacks at least a couple of times a week.” 

She said she also fears for the public if Henry is ever released from prison. 

“I don’t believe he will ever stop abusing people,” she said. 

‘Devastating consequences’ 

Henry was first arrested in 2005, after two other young people – a boy and a girl – went to police to report having been indecently assaulted. He was found guilty at trial and sentenced in 2007 to 12 months’ imprisonment. 

While on bail awaiting trial and sentencing, he continued to rape one of his earlier victims who had not yet gone to police. 

Henry was arrested again after a sixth victim, the daughter of an earlier victim, came forward in 2022. He sexually violated the 17-year-old the first time under the guise of a “trust exercise”. 

Wayne Henry was sentenced in the High Court at Auckland (pictured) after a jury trial at Auckland District Court. Photo / NZME 

“They speak very clearly of the profound and ongoing psychological damage you inflicted,” Justice Johnstone said of the four women whose complaints made the basis of the most recent trial, describing Henry’s offending as “disgraceful”. 

“They have experienced the devastating consequences.” 

‘Entirely unremorseful’ 

Crown prosecutor Ben Kirkpatrick argued that preventive detention – a rare sentence reserved for New Zealand’s worst recidivist offenders – would be the best way to protect the public from Henry. 

Henry’s continued denial of the recent and historic offending makes him especially risky to the community, Kirkpatrick said. 

But defence lawyer Annabel Cresswell noted preventive detention has been deemed by the Court of Appeal to be unnecessary when an extended supervision order – akin to parole conditions for up to 10 years after a sentence is completed – can serve the same purpose of protecting the community. 

If an extended supervision order was granted in the future, that would mean he could potentially be monitored up to age 87. 

Justice Johnstone agreed an extended supervision order would be the right approach when paired with the lengthy prison sentence he was prepared to hand down. 

He declined any discounts from the 23-year sentence, including a 10% reduction that had been sought by the defence because of a traumatic event that Henry recalled from his own childhood. 

“Clearly, you are entirely unremorseful,” he said. 

Henry, who sat in a wheelchair, said he couldn’t stand as the judge listed the sentences for each of the 18 convictions. He was wheeled away a short time later. 

Where to get help:
If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk confidentially, any time 24/7:
• Call 0800 044 334
• Text 4334
• Email [email protected]
• For more info or to web chat visit safetotalk.nz
Alternatively contact your local police station - click here for a list.
If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it's not your fault.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.