Bill D'Arcy

William Theodore D'Arcy (born 31 July 1939) is a former Australian politician. He was the Labor member for Albert (1972–74) and Woodridge (1977–2000) in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland.

D'Arcy was born in Brisbane. He worked as a teacher and business consultant before his entry into politics.

He was first elected to Parliament at the 1972 election for the seat of Albert following Liberal MLA Bill Heatley's death, but he was defeated at the 1974 election. He returned to the Assembly in 1977 as the member for the new seat of Woodridge. In 1987 he was appointed Opposition Spokesman on Tourism, Sport and Racing, and in February 1980 became Deputy Leader of the Opposition, serving until 1982. He held his seat until his resignation in January 2000.^[1][2]

Accusations of child sexual abuse[]

Questionable trial[]

On 1 September 1998 an editorial appeared in the national newspaper The Australian entitled "Rule of law poor second to politics". The editorial took Premier Peter Beattie to task for responding to rumours that a member of Parliament (MP) in the Australian Labor Party had been accused of pedophilia. The editorial decried that allegations had been made public before police had interviewed the MP concerned or any charges had been laid. The editorial implied that the identity of the member (Bill D'Arcy) was widely known. It stated that "The matter in Queensland has rapidly run out of control" and criticised Beattie for asking the MP to resign as it would amount to an admission of guilt. It stated that the member of Parliament had rightly refused to resign and had denied the allegations "forcefully and indignantly".

In seeking the MPs resignation the Premier, and independent MP Peter Wellington, have by implication branded him guilty. Already his identity would be known to many, if not most, people in his immediate circle. His reputation has been affected, probably indelibly.^[3]

Criminal conviction[]

Nevertheless, despite the pre-trial publicity, in November 2000 in the Brisbane Supreme Court Bill D'Arcy was tried and convicted of one charge of rape and seventeen other charges of sexual assaults on children in his care. These were said to have taken place in the mid 1960s while D'Arcy was a young teacher at the Yalleroi School in Queensland.^[4] He was later successfully prosecuted on three charges and sentenced to eleven years jail. D'Arcy was ordered to undertake a treatment program relating to his convictions, but refused to do this while maintaining his innocence. His second appeal for parole was granted and he was conditionally released to the community with restrictions prohibiting contact with minors.^[2] D'Arcy vehemently protested his innocence claiming he had been pre-tried by the media,^[5] and made a statement, "I'm saying to you that these allegations made against me are false, and I'll defend my innocence until my dying breath."^[4]

Compensation rejected by civil court[]

In June 2002 two of D'Arcy's victims sued D'Arcy for $500,000 in the District Court of Queensland.^[6] These civil proceedings covered the same grounds as the original criminal trial. Judge H W H Botting denied the compensation, and awarded costs to D'Arcy, stating that, "The applicants have not discharged the onus of persuading me that a fair trial is now possible. In fact, in my view, the time that has now elapsed since the events complained of took place make the chances of a fair trial unlikely."^[7]

D'Arcy was released in 2007.^[2]

Post-release discourse[]

In 2008 a loose coalition of Queenslanders with expertise in "psychology, media, politics, policing and child abuse" applied to the Bligh Government for a pardon for D'Arcy. The application was refused.^[8]

In 2009, a meeting was set up within the Liberal National Party of Queensland to discuss whether "a new class of miscarriages of justice" had occurred in the conviction of Bill D'Arcy. Guest speaker and presenter was Queensland psychologist and academic, Dr. Travis Gee.^[9] At the last moment the meeting was cancelled by party leader Lawrence Springborg. He stated: "Bill D'Arcy is no friend or colleague of the Liberal National Party, never has been, never will be."^[10]

On 13 November 2011 an article appeared in The Australian newspaper reporting D'Arcy as strongly protesting his innocence of all charges and claiming that "private investigators, psychologists and lawyers" had built a case that would prove his innocence. In reply Queensland Attorney-General Paul Lucas dismissed his claims, saying "I have nothing but contempt for Bill D'Arcy".^[11]

References[]