By Eugene Bingham, 60 Minutes producer
Amid the lies exposed during our 60 Minutes
investigation into the country's Chief Defence Scientist, there's one more
deception which deserves an explanation.
That’s our own imposture against Stephen Wilce himself.
One of the central tenets of journalism is that anyone you deal with should
know who you are and what organisation you're from. You’ll have seen in our
story "Secrets and Lies" that we made a calculated decision to deceive.
It’s not a choice we made lightly, and it caused much debate in the 60 Minutes
office.
In the end, though, we firmly believed it was the only way we could uncover
this important story.
Wilce has been lying to people for many years. You’ll have seen in the story
that he has told lies to and about his employers going back at least 20 years.
Five years ago, he landed a job as the director of the Defence Technology
Agency and the Chief Defence Scientist - which is what made it a story of
significant public interest.
He is not someone who heads a private company or small organisation. The DTA
provides important advice to the military on technological and scientific
matters. It has worked with the SAS on developing a secure digital
communication pack; it has provided classified advice to the Government on
threats to Air Force aircraft in Afghanistan.
Wilce also solely represents New Zealand on the Technical Co-Operation
Programme, a committee through which New Zealand shares and receives defence
secrets with four key allies.
It should go without saying that the integrity and honesty of this person
should be beyond reproach.
When we learned he was not telling the truth about his background, then, we
felt this needed to be exposed. That was an easy decision. The hard bit was how.
We concluded the only way was to actually catch him out lying; we needed direct
evidence that he continues to deceive.
Our ruse was as a recruitment consultant offering him a job. On the basis of
that, Wilce was happy to talk to us about his so-called background.
It’s worth noting that the deception was remarkably effortless; so
straight-forward in fact we thought it would have no chance of taking him in.
Remember Wilce holds a very senior position in the Defence Force and has the
highest levels of security clearance.
And yet, on the basis of one text from a reporter using a fake name he was
happy to talk to us about a supposed job. In that first call, he was
astonishingly guileless, telling us that the Chief of Defence was grooming him
for a job as a chief executive of one of the other ministries.
He agreed to come to a meeting where he chatted openly and handed over a CV
(unprompted, we should add).
We knew that in the past Wilce’s lies had emerged over several meetings with
prospective employers and so we invited him to a second, more casual,
appointment.
At this meeting he told us he was a member of the British bobsleigh team from
1982-1988 and knew the Jamaican team members who inspired the movie
Cool Runnings.
He also disclosed that, according to him, he has “top secret plus” security
clearance. Exactly what his clearance level is we haven’t been able to confirm,
though we do know that it is high. So, again, why would he be meeting a woman
who could be anyone? And why would he be telling her about his security
classification?
It’s just one of the many conundrums about Stephen Wilce.
Armed with what he’d told us and the CV he’d given us, we set about tracking
down his former employers and colleagues. This was when the lies became
apparent.
A sorry saga unfolded as not one of his previous employers going back to 1990
had a favourable thing to say about him.
His most recent previous job was as the head of a small housing company outside
of Newcastle, New South Wales. They used to jokingly refer to him as a rocket
scientist because of what he’d told them about his past. They were stunned to
find out he had landed the job of New Zealand’s
Chief Defence Scientist.
How did that happen? Good question and it’s one we’ll be pursuing. So far, the
Defence Force is not answering our questions because they’ve launched their own
investigation.
We’re continuing to dig out the story and we’ll update you as we find out the
truth.
A truth we think could only have been uncovered by our decision to go undercover.