Former Hobart teacher Keith Athol Bates-Willie found guilty of sexual abuse of students
After a three-week trial, a Supreme Court jury has found a former drama teacher guilty of systematically abusing vulnerable students across multiple Tasmanian schools between 1970 and the 2000s.
One of Tasmania’s most prolific schools-based sex offenders faces the prospect of a significant term of imprisonment after a Supreme Court jury found he abused multiple teenage students over the course of a 30-year teaching career.
Following a three-week trial, 71-year-old Keith Athol Bates-Willie was found guilty of all 14 charges against him, comprising one count of rape, four counts of the persistent sexual abuse of a child, one count of aggravated sexual assault, and eight counts of indecent assault.
The jury heard the former drama teacher and noted theatre director began abusing students in late 1970s while working at Rosetta High, with his offending going largely unchecked throughout subsequent roles at Kingston High School and Rosny College ending in the mid-2000.
After retiring to begin their deliberations on Wednesday afternoon, jury members returned at 3pm on Thursday to ask Justice Stephen Estcourt whether majority verdicts would be accepted by the court.
After being informed that verdicts agreed on by 10 or more of its members could be received on any charge on the indictment, the jury returned less than 20 minutes later to deliver unanimous guilty verdicts on 10 counts, and majority guilty verdicts on the remaining four.
A large gathering of victim-survivors and supporters – many of whom had attended every day of the trial – remained largely composed as the verdicts were delivered, although quiet crying could be heard in the public gallery towards the end of the lengthy process.
In contrast, Bates-Willie displayed little visible emotion as he stood listening in the dock, or when he was later led to the cells by custodial officers.
The trial heard the offender had satisfied his ongoing sexual interest in underage males by establishing cliques of “favourite” students, before exploiting the emotional connections he built with vulnerable victims by touching them without consent.
Prosecutors said Bates-Willie often befriended students who were having trouble in their personal lives, or experiencing troubles on the home front, and had presented himself as a cultured and well-travelled role model who was described by a number of complainants as a “father figure” within school communities.
In addition to the psychological methods Bates-Willie used to coerce students into sexual interactions on school grounds, in costume warehouses, and inside his car, the court heard that alcohol was regularly used by the defendant during boozy home dinner parties to entice incapacitated students into his own bed.
Other proven assaults took place in a photography dark room; during “breathing classes” taken by the accused; and aboard a Bass Strait passenger ferry during a holiday to South Australia.
During the trial, one former Rosny College student gave evidence that Bates-Willie had developed the persona of a “cult leader” within the school’s performing arts community, and had encouraged a permissive environment in which physical touching – including in-class massaging of the teacher – was considered commonplace.
The now-adult witness became emotional as he recalled the night Bates-Willie invited him to sleep over at his home on the eve of an important exam, before providing the teen with alcohol and announcing they would share a bed.
Despite telling the student he “didn’t have to worry” about what would happen during the night, Bates-Willie later performed a sex act on the teenager without his consent.
“He just laughed and said ‘Just lie back and think of England’, which is one of the jokes that he used to make back then,” the man said.
“I was just so repulsed, and just wanted to not be there.”
That incident formed the basis of the tenth count on the indictment – the charge of rape – to which the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict.
Justice Estcourt remanded Bates-Willie in custody, ahead of further sentencing submissions to be held at a later date.
Following the verdicts, the Department for Education, Children and Young People issued a statement saying it was unable to comment on any matter before the courts.
Jessie Sawyer and Christopher Lindsay, defence counsel for Keith Athol Bates-Willie, leave the Supreme Court. Picture: Craig Herbert
Former teacher and now convicted pedophile Keith Athol Bates-Willie, leaves the Supreme Court in Hobart. Picture: Elise Kaine
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Originally published as Former Hobart teacher Keith Athol Bates-Willie found guilty of sexual abuse of students
