James Wallace. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Former knight James Hay Wallace has been granted parole and is due to be released on 11 December, his lawyer David Jones KC told Stuff.
The almost 86-year-old first appeared before the board in September and continued to deny all his offending.
"I am almost 86. I am really not capable of being a risk to anyone in any sexual sense and otherwise. I'm always more helpful than I am a risk to society generally," Wallace said.
He will be seen before the Parole Board again on Friday who had asked him to work on his safety plan and talk to a psychologist.
Back in June, Wallace was revealed as the "prominent businessman" who had sexually abused three young men after he failed to be granted leave to appeal by the Supreme Court. This was more than five years after he'd been charged.
Stuff and NZME successfully revoked his name suppression on the morning of his first trial in 2019. However, at every step, Wallace appealed. Until the Supreme Court said no more in June.
Earlier this year, then-Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced that Wallace was no longer allowed to use the title "Sir" after the government made a request to King Charles to strip him of his knighthood.
Wallace was appointed as Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for Services to the arts in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours.
At the hearing in September, Wallace told the board it would be a lie if he now said he was guilty just in attempt to get home.
"For as long as your hands can move you are potentially a risk...for as long as your brain works you are able to attempt to dissuade," board member Sam Perry asked Wallace.
"It's totally outside of my character...my character at this age especially," Wallace replied.
Back in 2021, Wallace was found guilty of sexually assaulting three men who were visiting him at his Epsom home, Rannoch House.
The three men were indecently assaulted in 2000 or 2001, 2008 and 2016.
In the two earlier cases, both men had been invited to Wallace's home for business meetings seeking grants. In both cases, they had been given alcohol and the assaults took place after they were taken on a tour of the house.
One of the men believed Wallace had spiked his drink with drugs.
In the 2016 assault, the victim was living and working at the house as part of Wallace's residency.
He told the court he had food poisoning on the night he was attacked. The same night Wallace climbed into his bed, "spooned" him, then sexually assaulted him.
After the 2016 victim went to the police, the businessman and others made several attempts to convince him to drop the complaint.
At Wallace's sentencing, Justice Geoffrey Venning said it was for Wallace's benefit to bribe the victim from giving evidence and he was prepared to spend significant amounts of money.
"You had others do your dirty work," Justice Venning said.
Ahead of sentencing, Stuff revealed Wallace appeared to put his name to an email sent to 167 people and group email addresses, begging for letters of support to keep him out of jail. 89 people replied sending letters to the court.