Keith Bates-Willie: Crown says evidence proves decades of student abuse
A Hobart jury has heard harrowing testimony from 16 former students alleging decades of abuse by a retired drama teacher — and how school leaders ignored their desperate pleas for help.
A Hobart jury has been told that “compelling and overwhelming” evidence about a retired drama teacher’s alleged predatory behaviour at multiple schools across a 30-year career proved his tendency to groom then sexually abuse young male students in his care.
Delivering the Crown’s closing address in the trial of Keith Athol Bates-Willie on Monday, prosecutor Jack Shapiro asked jury members to consider the totality of evidence provided by 16 separate complainants during the trial, which Mr Shapiro said painted a picture of man who exploited his emotional connection with students to touch them indecently.
Mr Bates-Willie, 71, has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges – including rape, indecent assault, and the persistent sexual abuse of a child – allegedly committed against multiple students from the late 1970s to the mid-2000s.
Mr Shapiro said the accused had a sexual interest in young boys which he was willing to act on, and that the only rational explanation for the evidence given at trial by victim-survivors was because it was exactly what happened.
“There was just an overwhelming volume of evidence to prove that the accused touched many males indecently from the late 70s to the early 2000s,” Mr Shaprio said.
“There was a vast body of evidence on this trial that the accused had a tendency to behave in certain ways.
“He was a man who always brought things back to sex, and his sexual interest was these young boys”.
Mr Shapiro said one complainant gave evidence Mr Bates-Willie would consistently raise topics about “anything in the pervy realm”, and that other testimony revealed his predilections for dressing students up in skimpy theatre costumes; touching them intimately during breath-work classes; and initiating sexual activity during close-quarters situations inside photography dark rooms, school storage cupboards, and his own car.
Prosecutors recounted the testimony of a former Kingston High student who reported Mr Bates-Willie’s assaults to the then-school principal, with the plea “you’ve got to keep him away from us”.
The witness told the court the principal refused to act on his concerns, and had dismissed the seriousness of Mr Bates-Willie’s conduct by saying “that’s just poofs mate ... that’s just the way poofs are”.
“But I knew the difference between a homosexual and a monster,” the former student told the court.
Another student told the court he experienced a similar rejection from Kingston High’s then-deputy principal, who denied his request to leave Mr Bates-Willie’s pastoral care group.
Mr Shapiro said that in contrast to the credibility of complainant accounts, Mr Bates-Willie’s “polished and rehearsed” testimony from the witness box had been inconsistent, unreliable, and indicative of having a selective memory when it came to recalling key events.
“Don’t be taken in by his forceful denials,” Mr Shapiro said.
“Of course he was going to come in here and say ‘no’.”
The closing address of Mr Bates-Willie’s defence team is expected to begin on Tuesday.
The trial, before Justice Stephen Estcourt, continues.
More Coverage
Originally published as Keith Bates-Willie: Crown says evidence proves decades of student abuse
