‘You must come tonight’

Musician Dudley Benson thought Sir James Wallace wanted to help him, but the powerful philanthropist saw him as prey. 

By Logan Church 

Late one Sunday afternoon in 2008, while working at the old Marbecks music store at the bottom of Auckland's bustling Queen Street, 24-year-old aspiring musician Dudley Benson's cellphone rang. 

"Hello?" he said. 

"It's James Wallace," said a raspy voice at the end of the line. 

"I’ve got your proposal. I want to meet with you and talk about it, but you must come tonight". 

Tonight? It seemed odd, but then Wallace, an arts philanthropist, was a busy man, an important man. Maybe he was going away and in a rush. 

Besides, it was not the first time Dudley had received attention for his work. He was a composer and performer on the rise. He’d done several media interviews and had been featured and photographed for arts magazines. He’d started to be nominated for awards too. 

This, Dudley figured, was why Wallace was so interested in him. 

Only a few hours later, Dudley would realise just how naïve he had been.  

A powerful figure 

All Dudley knew of Wallace was what others in the music community said about him – that he was an arts patron, that he was gay, and he often supported the projects of young, gay men. 

He seemed an obvious person to approach for support. 

Dudley had released a couple of EPs, done some live performances, but launching an album was his dream. He had just spent months recording his debut, The Awakening, in Radio New Zealand's Auckland studios. He did it in the evenings with an audio engineer friend who worked there, after most of the staff had gone home. Unbeknown to him, works from the Wallace art collection hung on the walls at Radio New Zealand. 

Dudley wanted to do a national tour of churches with his band and had started looking for sponsorship. He had put together a proposal booklet - a portrait of himself, painted by New Zealand artist Peter Stichbury,  adorned the cover  - and sent it to more than a dozen sponsors.  

He had asked for $5,000 from each sponsor and was quite successful at raising money, with a total of $20,000 in contributions in the bank. 

He needed just $5,000 more and thought he might approach Wallace through the Wallace Arts Trust, the philanthropist’s charitable organisation that funded arts projects.  

A few days later the phone call came. 

The drinks, the dinner, and the drugging 

Dudley had an early dinner with his partner Josh and talked excitedly about his meeting with Wallace. Then sometime after 6pm, he got a taxi to James Wallace's home, named Rannoch. 

The taxi crawled up the leaf-lined Epsom Street and as it approached the house, Dudley felt stunned. The mansion was a cream colour, and, in Dudley's mind, very impressive. He thought it looked almost Greco-Roman, with topiary hedges and gravel driveway leading to a parking space and turnaround bay in front of the house. 

Stepping out of the car, he was met by a man who appeared to be a butler. This is surreal, he thought. Almost cinematic. 

But if he thought the outside was impressive, the inside was about to take his breath away. The main door led into a great room, also white, with a grand staircase that spiralled up to the upper floors. On every available space were artworks. Paintings, tapestries, sculptures – there was art everywhere. There was a piano in the middle of the great hall. 

Kiwi music royalty Dame Kiri Te Kanawa had performed here. Everything felt plush and opulent. The wealth on display was almost overwhelming. 

Dudley was ushered through the great hall and into what looked like a drawing room or study. There were several mahogany bookcases and against one wall was a wooden bar housing various spirits. There were couches and chairs in the middle of the room.  

At the center of this almost regal scene, stood an elderly man, dressed in a lavender business shirt, the sleeves rolled-up, large bangles on his forearm. It was James Wallace. When Dudley shook Wallace’s hand, the bangles on his arm rattled. 

Wallace offered Dudley a gin and tonic and went to the bar to make it. Wallace's back was to Dudley, and Dudley could not see what was being poured into the glass. 

Sipping the gin and tonic, Dudley answered Wallace’s questions about his tour. The conversation started well. Wallace asked about Dudley's work, specifically the album and the tour. 

"We are off to a really solid start,” Dudley told him. "We have sponsors all lined up." 

Hyping up his show, Dudley also spoke of how much he appreciated seeing art from the Wallace art collection on the walls at Radio New Zealand when he was recording his album. 

However, Wallace's immediate response was not exactly what Dudley was hoping for. 

His tone felt abrasive, almost like Wallace was making it clear that he was older, more powerful, and more respected than Dudley. 

"I'm going to make you another drink," said Wallace, abruptly, heading back to the bar. 

Dudley had not asked for another drink but felt he had to be polite, to accept it. Once again Wallace made the gin with his back turned.  

Fifteen minutes later, it felt like the conversation was wrapping up and the night might be drawing to an end. 

But then Wallace turned to Dudley. 

"By the way, you're staying for dinner." 

Dudley had eaten dinner already and he did not really want to stay, but thinking the $5,000 was at stake, he agreed. 

Wallace led Dudley into the dining room. Chicken and boiled beans were served along with what looked like a Maggi instant gravy in a Pyrex jug. Wallace seemed embarrassed. We've had some staff issues, he explained, the chef was gone.  

The meal was bad, and incongruous with the setting of the great house. But out of politeness Dudley ate it. Wallace had poured him a glass of red wine. 

Wallace's tone began to change.  

Wallace asked personal questions, about his relationship with Josh, his sexuality, when he had come out as gay. Dudley felt very uncomfortable, but tried to humour Wallace, asking him if he was in a relationship. Wallace laughed off the question. 

Another glass of red wine. 

By the time the food was finished and cleared, Dudley was ready to go home. 

"It's been nice to meet you and thank you for your time," he said. 

"I'm going to be taking you on a tour of the house," Wallace said, appearing to want to show off the art. 

So, the tour began, taking in artworks, a wine cellar, a conservatory. Wallace stopped Dudley in front of a large, life-sized statue of a ballet dancer. He turned to Dudley. 

"The last person that I showed this work to took his pants off, lay down, and started masturbating," he said. 

Dudley did not know how to respond. He could not believe anyone would actually have said that. He felt more like Wallace was projecting a fantasy on to him. 

"Oh yeah?” That was all he could say. 

The tour continued, Dudley still in shock. As they went upstairs, Dudley began to feel dizzy. 

They stopped infront of closed door. Behind it was Wallace’s bedroom. 

The assault 

Wallace led Dudley into his bedroom. The dizziness was getting worse.  

Against one wall stood a large bed. There were high ceilings and long curtains.  

Wallace led Dudley to a door in the wall that he could see connected to another bedroom. 

Wallace said softly, "This is where you would be staying". 

Dudley began moving away from Wallace, but he felt a hand firmly on his ass and warm breath against the back of his neck. 

"God you've got such a sweet ass," Wallace whispered, squeezing it and kissing the back of Dudley's neck. 

Dudley froze. His vision was blurry. His limbs felt heavy. He felt strange, like he’d never felt before – not drunk - almost out of control.  

 An overwhelming sense of dread washed over Dudley and a voice in his head said, "Dudley, you're in danger and you need to leave – you need to get out now". 

He stumbled out of the room, Wallace prowling behind him in silence. Forcing himself forward through the rabbit warrens of the house, he found a phone and called a taxi. 

Now he was outside the mansion – how did he get here? - and the taxi was pulling up.  

At home, Josh opened the front door, and was horrified. Dudley could barely speak. Josh helped Dudley up the stairs. Dudley managed to get himself to a bathroom where he began vomiting violently.  

Burying the trauma 

Next morning, Dudley and Josh discussed what to do. The idea of going to the police crossed their mind, but they thought what had happened wouldn’t be taken seriously. 

And besides, Dudley’s tour was about to begin. There were last-minute logistics to sort, funds to raise, and press to talk to. He was deep in rehearsals. Being  sexually assaulted was not part of that picture. So, Dudley stored the memory in a small corner in his mind. 

The tour continued. Dudley wrote more music. He performed. Life went on. 

But what happened at Rannoch that night kept nagging at him. He told his family and a few close friends what Wallace had done to him. And if Wallace’s name came up in conversation with other young artists, he would try to warn them away. 

But that was it, a trauma tucked away at the back of Dudley’s brain. It would stay there for almost a decade. Until the whispers began. 

The charges and the conspiracy 

The arts community is small and everyone knows each other. In early 2017, many began whispering that Sir James Wallace, the man who had helped make the careers of countless artists, was being investigated by police for indecently assaulting a young man. 

Dudley heard the rumours. Although it had been almost ten years since the assault at Rannoch, he came to a very simple realisation: I have to support that victim. 

Dudley was living in Dunedin by now, and he walked into the city’s central police station to make a statement to a detective. He detailed what he had gone through that evening all those years ago. Sitting in the interview room, talking to the police felt good, almost liberating. It was a secret bottled up set free.  

Later, he’d recall, “It felt really good to finally do something that I had been kind of denying. It felt like maybe we could begin to stop him.” 

“People told me at the time this isn’t going to go anywhere, this isn’t going to work. He will get off scot-free from this. He’s wealthy, he has infinite resources, he’s powerful. Save yourself the stress. But that’s not the kind of person that I am. I have a strong sense of justice and even though it took 10 years for me to come forward about it, once we were on that roll, I was not going to stop.” 

The detective listened, taking Dudley’s statement, before sending it to the detective in Auckland leading the case. Wallace would eventually be charged with indecent assault of three men, as well as two charges of trying to pervert the course of justice.

Wallace in court

Wallace’s trial was beset by delays and complications. It was delayed after new evidence emerged and two more victims came forward – Dudley was one. When it finally went ahead, it was declared a mistrial after one of the witnesses revealed they had a secret recording of a late-night conversation at Auckland’s Family Bar, in which associates of Wallace, including his business partner Mustafa Erinc Yikar and PR agent Jevan Goulter, discussed their part in a plot to try to convince the first complainant to drop their complaint. 

They, along with queer performer and former advocate for young rainbow artists Mika X, posed as New York talent agents and lured the victim to a flashy Gold Coast hotel, where they promised money. 

Mika X had also been caught in an earlier secret recording at his dance studio saying he could get $65,000 out of Wallace for the victim – if he dropped his complaint. 

The mistrial was a blow for Dudley. He had spent three hours in the witness stand only for the trial to be aborted. He had not only had to retell his story in front of the court, the media, Wallace and a judge, he had been cross-examined by Wallace’s lawyer, David Jones KC. 

He felt the defence had tried incredibly hard to tear his reputation to pieces, insinuating he had never actually met Wallace, had never sent a proposal, that he had never received a call from Wallace and had never gone to his home. His responses were measured, as calm as possible. He was proud of how he had stood up for himself, but gutted when it was all for nothing. 

 A new trial was likely, but who knew when that might be. 

The second trial 

In 2021, Dudley travelled back to Auckland for a new trial. Walking into the High Court in Auckland the morning he was due to give evidence, he felt only rage. 

He was deeply angry at not only what Wallace had done, but at how no one in the arts community seemed to be standing up to say anything. He was also still furious after the last cross examination, an experience he felt was a character assassination. 

So, as he walked into the courtroom once again, past a line of journalists, past Wallace, past the lawyers and sat in the witness stand next to the judge; he was ready. 

He answered everything Wallace’s lawyer threw at him and denied every suggestion he was not telling the truth. 

He only glanced at Wallace once. His face mask had slipped halfway down his face; he looked pathetic, Dudley thought - like Gollum from Lord of the Rings. 

A few weeks later, Sir James Wallace was found guilty on all charges – indecent assault of three men, as well as the two charges of trying to pervert the course of justice.

Yikar was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice. Mika X pleaded guilty to his part. Jevan Goulter and his associate got immunity deals in exchange for giving evidence against Wallace.

Dudley would only see Wallace one more time - at his sentencing at the High Court in Auckland. 

He wrote his own victim impact statement and read it out to the court. 

“Whenever I was at the opening of a show, there was a chance that James Wallace would be there. And often he was. I would leave immediately if he was there. His name would come up frequently through the various arts organisations or individuals he funded or in going to a film and seeing in the credits that he funded it. On all of these occasions I was reminded of how the person who assaulted me continued to play a respected role in my community.” 

Speaking out 

Last month, Wallace finally lost name suppression. Dudley asked for his own automatic name suppression to be lifted and now, all these years after being assaulted, he can talk openly. 

He sits in his central Dunedin bar, Woof!, which he co-owns with Josh. The pair are no longer together, but they are still close and remain business partners. They started the bar to create a safe space for those who feel excluded from Dunedin’s more traditional establishments. 

He’s upbeat. 

“I’m, I’m pretty good now. I’m fine, you know,” he says. 

“I’m proud of the person that I am. I think that going through this experience has brought up in me the need to use my voice to advocate for myself and the two other guys that have gone through this. And since my name was released, with my permission from the court, I’ve heard from so many people who are victims of sexual assault, people who have had experiences with James Wallace. And I feel proud that in doing this that in a small way, I hope I can relieve some of the tension that they’ve experienced too.” 

He talks about the hoops he had to jump through to have his own name suppression lifted, why he did it. 

“I want to speak about this and I’ve got no shame about what happened to me that night anymore. We need to bring into the open what he did and part of that is sharing who I am. And I hope that this is an elixir for any shame that others have experienced with him. And I encourage them to share what’s happened. It’s the only way that we’re gonna get through this as an arts community. Keeping a secret makes you sick and it’s time to shine a light on what he did to our people. 

Tomorrow, Logan Church investigates who knew what was going on behind closed doors, and why many decided to stay quiet despite the young men being abused