Keith Athol Bates-Willie faces Supreme Court over school sex abuse claims
A former Kingston High student has provided harrowing testimony about the pattern of sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated against him by the school drama teacher, who carried out his assaults inside a storage cupboard at the back of the classroom.
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A former Kingston High student has provided harrowing testimony about the sustained pattern of sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated against him by the school drama teacher, who carried out his assaults inside a large storage cupboard at the back of the classroom.
The man, who cannot be identified, told the Supreme Court on Tuesday he was a student of Keith Athol Bates-Willie in the early-1990s, when the teacher began to single him out for preferential treatment and attention.
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 nine different males from the late 1970s to the mid-2000s.
The witness said Mr Bates-Willie had first inappropriately touched him during a class relaxation exercise which involved students lying on the floor with their eyes closed, and had later groped him while he was climbing inside a large hessian bag before a drama performance.
But the abuse began to escalate in seriousness and frequency after the teacher began ordering his pupil inside the drama room’s walk-in cupboard, which he would then enter himself.
“Early on he would push his body into me … and over time it became more and more inappropriate and severe in terms of the things that would happen to me in the cupboard,” the witness said.
The man said that, under the guise of conducting “health checks”, Mr Bates-Willie would touch the complainant’s genital area, and on at least one occasion had carried out a penetrative assault.
The witness said he had asked Kingston High’s deputy principal to be moved from Mr Bates-Willie’s class to no avail, and reacted strongly to a suggestion by the defendant’s lawyer that the cupboard incidents never occurred.
“That’s just an obscene thing to say, I know these things happened,” the man said.
“I was there, you weren’t, and I am here because people who do these sorts of things to children shouldn’t be allowed to be in society.”
Earlier in the day, a former Rosetta High student gave evidence about the multiple visits his mother made to the school to complain about groping attacks being perpetrated on her son by Mr Bates-Willie.
The witness said the defendant had deliberately touched him on the groin during a breathing class, and would regularly grope him in front of classmates in school corridors.
Giving evidence to the jury, the complainant recounted one of the many occasions he alleged Mr Bates-Willie went out of his way to approach him in a school hallway, as students moved between classes.
“I saw Mr Bates coming up the stairs, and divert to give me a grab,” the man said.
“It was bizarre. I thought ‘Why would you do that?’ ”
The witness said he told his mother about multiple incidents involving Mr Bates-Willie, and said he recalled seeing her on campus complaining to school authorities.
The man agreed he was currently involved in civil litigation against Tasmania’s Department of Education relating to his treatment at the school, but denied suggestions he had invented allegations in order to receive a compensation payout.
The trial, before Justice Stephen Estcourt, continues.
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