Overview

• Defence lawyer Jessie Sawyer argued that the complainant invented abuse claims out of resentment after Bates-Willie briefly attended his wedding.
• The alleged victim rejected the fabrication claim and described enduring repeated grooming through excessive drinking, staged “rehearsals” and assaults aboard the Abel Tasman ferry in the mid-1980s.
• A separate witness broke down in court while recounting how Bates-Willie molested him in a cramped school storeroom under the guise of uniform inspections.
• Bates-Willie, 71, has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges of indecent assault, rape and persistent sexual abuse of a child dating from the late 1970s to the early 2000s.
• Justice Stephen Estcourt is presiding over the ongoing Supreme Court trial in Hobart as cross-examination of witnesses continues.