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]

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 as young teacher at the Yalleroi School in the mid 1960s.[3] 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,[4] 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."[3]

In June 2002 two of D’Arcy's victims sued D’Arcy for $500,000 in the District Court of Queensland.[5] 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."[6]

D'Arcy was released in 2007.[2]

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”.[7]