‘Dead-set perv’: court hears sex allegations against former Hobart high school drama teacher
A complainant who was allegedly raped by a former teacher during a two-week stay-over at the man’s home in the 1980s has denied suggestions he initiated sexual contact between the pair. What the court heard.
Police & Courts
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A child-sex complainant who was allegedly raped by a former teacher during a two-week stay-over at the man’s West Hobart home in the early 1980s has denied a defence barrister’s suggestion he instigated sexual contact between the pair.
The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, also told the Supreme Court he was aged 16 years old at the time of the assaults, and had not turned 17 until later that year.
Ex-Hobart high school teacher and local theatre identity, Keith Athol Bates-Willie, 71, has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges – including rape, indecent assault, and the persistent sexual abuse of a child – allegedly committed from the late 1970s to the mid-2000s.
The former Rosetta High School student was quizzed by Mr Bates-Willie’s defence lawyer, Jessie Sawyer, about evidence he gave to the jury on Wednesday about being attacked by Mr Bates-Willie inside a school recording studio, within a photography dark room, and in the teacher’s car while it was parked off the Brooker Hwy.
Ms Sawyer asked the witness whether it was credible to believe that Mr Bates-Willie had chosen a busy dark room, with other students in close proximity, to perpetrate an indecent act.
“He made it a joke like he was tickling you,” the witness said of the teacher’s habit of pressing his erection into the student’s back.
“Everybody knew he was a dead-set perv, and he did this whenever he could.
“I think Mr Bates’ perviness was beyond doubt.”
The witness was also asked about a fortnight he spent staying at the teacher’s home, in the year after he left Rosetta High.
The man told Ms Sawyer that Mr Bates-Willie had “carried” him into his own bed most nights, where he forced non-consensual sexual activity on him.
The complainant denied suggestions he had ever entered the defendant’s bed voluntarily, or had been curious about exploring his sexuality with someone he was “enamoured” with.
“You might call it an experiment, but I think most people here would call it rape,” the man said.
Another former Rosetta High student gave evidence on Thursday about being indecently assaulted by Mr Bates-Willie during a Year 7 breathing-exercise class run by the teacher.
The witness said he was lying face-up on the floor with his eyes closed, when the defendant touched him without warning.
“He ran his hand down my torso down to my groin, and kept it there for more than a cursory moment,” the man said.
“I just assumed this was part of the process. I was obviously young and naive.”
The witness rejected defence suggestions the touching could have been accidental, and said that he and Mr Bates-Willie never spoke about the incident.
The trial, before Justice Stephen Estcourt, continues.
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