The farce of the Hole in the Wall

One of the great farces in the campaign against Bill D'Arcy, and the rumours that gained credence in the press, was the myth of the Hole in the Wall.

It received great currency in the newspapers. Through this small hole D'Arcy was supposed to have been watched by the students in his sexual dalliances. Anyone who thinks this sort of false publicity would not have prejudiced his trial, would have to be living on another planet.

PHOTOS: Investigator's comment:

Above are two photos relevant to the affidavits regarding the hole in the wall at the Yalleroi State School. The photos show how tiny that school building was with its classroom and tiny backroom with storage cupboard. The latter was probably a back verandah enclosed at some time prior to Bill D'Arcy's arrival.

The top photo is from the classroom looking into the back room. The prosecution deliberately tried to make out this was a library or headmaster's office when it wasn't.

All work was done in the classroom. No teacher would closet himself away where he couldn't see the students who were all grades i.e.the entire school population. The bottom photo is the reverse - the back room looking into the classroom with the front verandah visible in the background.

The photo, below left, is a typical and similar school of the time.

But, more importantly, the myth of the Hole was central to the evidence presented in the Court. Keep in mind that in the first and main trial Bill D'Arcy was convicted of eighteen charges, one of which was the serious charge of rape. But he was also found guilty of seventeen other charges brought by three other complainants supported by a number of witnesses. Despite major contradictions and anomalies in the evidence of these witnesses, Bill D'Arcy was still found guilty.

After carefully going through the transcripts and police statements, the former senior police officer of Statewide Security Consultants and Services (SSC&S), private investigators, highlighted the appalling quality of evidence demonstrated by the contradictory statements about the imaginary Hole in the Wall

"In considering the re-opening of these matters, nothing much further - in the initial stages at least - needs to be considered outside the mythical "hole in the wall." It has been suggested that it is not relevant to the convictions. IT IS. It may not be a specific feature of specific counts. In fact, His Honour made the point that ... none of the four complainants made or looked through the hole. However, the fact ... is that many of the prosecution witnesses have given evidence about the hole. Some have claimed to have witnessed through the hole that D'Arcy was in the act of committing sexual offences against children. The evidence of those who said such things is tainted beyond redemption and should never have seen the light of day."

Be assured of this - there wasn't ever any hole in the wall. Fourteen people gave evidence that there was a Hole in the Wall. Ten of these did so in testimony in court, and two of these were police officers! Of these, most came from the same family, but they disagreed on who dug the hole, who looked through the hole, and what they saw!

In contrast, thirty six people (contemporaries), six of these in court testimony, and thirty in other statements, said there was no Hole in the Wall. This was the quality of the evidence on which Bill D'Arcy was found guilty and sent to jail for over seven years.

The police in 1998, some thirty three years after the alleged offences, asked former pupils of the Yalleroi School to try to search their memories to recall any actions of D'Arcy's which could be useful in the case against him. One of the items they came up with in their hitherto forgotten memories was this Hole in the Wall. One student "recalled" that a certain student made this hole with his arithmetical compass through 3/4 inch thick pine!. The others, wanting to help the police nail a paedophile, started to remember it too. But then the student who was witnessed making the hole with his compass denied doing so!

To finally settle the question, three separate qualified tradespeople issued affidavits saying the was no hole, and never had been any hole in the Wall.

Mr Kenneth Keegan, caretaker / carpenter at the Yalleroi school signed an affidavit stating how "the police came about the middle of 1998" "to look for a hole in the wall". Keegan recalls how he had "just cleaned the building down at the time but it had not been painted".

Keegan reported that the building material was the old white pine, perhaps three quarters of an inch thick. In this material he stated that he had not found any holes in the wall and recounts further that he assured the police that he had not "puttied up any holes because there were none to putty up. There might have been a few nail holes and the like but there were definitely no holes you could look through.

Mr Wayne Eric White, a qualified building inspector, was also asked to give a careful and detailed examination of the building. He concluded that there never had been a hole in the wall.

Mr Robert John Carolan, a painter, who afterwards painted the area previously inspected by Keegan and White, also certified in an affidavit that there were no holes to fill prior to painting, and poured scorn on the suggestion that a student could make a hole in thick VJ (Vertical Joint) pine with a compass.

Recovered Memory
The concept of false or recovered memories is now widely discredited. This authoritative article is highly relevant to the D'Arcy case.

Readers should ask themselves this question. When you were aged 7, 8,9,10,11, how much clear detail can you remember of your teachers, your classmates, the arrangements of desks in classrooms etc. Yet these are the "memories" which sent a man to jail for over seven years.

SOURCES -
SSC&S - 88 page report
BD~D'Arcy-List of persons WITH alleged knowledge of hole in wall.
BD~D'Arcy List-with no knowledge of Hole in Wall.
Yalleroi Hole in Wall 9.10.05 investigator's report.
Hole in the wall-extracts (from various documents)
Yalleroi school persons of interest re Hole in the Wall
4 docs.Hole Wall et alia.pdf
Carolan Affidavit
White Affidavit.
Keegan Affidavit.