Noongar elders ‘disgusted’ by allegations as they take stand in trial of ‘healer’ Joseph Luke Williams

Respected Noongar elders have slammed the alleged sexual assaults carried out by self-proclaimed healer Joseph Luke Williams, with one labelling them “disgusting” during expert testimony yesterday. Mr Williams, 58, is fighting 12 charges of sexual penetration without consent and two charges of indecent assault in a District Court trial in Albany, where his defence lawyer Bruno Illari is arguing all sexual acts were consensual. The State has alleged Mr Williams assaulted the women between 2010 and 2014 in Denmark, Stirling Range National Park, Perth, and Broome, with some of the allegations involving penetration by rocks which he claimed had healing powers. State prosecutor Beau Sertorio alleges Mr Williams, who lives in Denmark, abused his cultural knowledge, manipulating women aged 18 to 34 for his own sexual gratification. Appearing via video-link in Albany yesterday, Gnowangerup-raised elder Gail Yorkshire-Selby, 66, was asked to draw on her traditional knowledge and cultural experience as she gave expert evidence on the fifth day of Mr Williams’ trial. Mr Sertorio asked Ms Yorkshire-Selby about the allegation from one of the women that Mr Williams rubbed his semen on her body to give her protection from an Aboriginal community in Broome. “We do not do that sort of thing,” Ms Yorkshire-Selby said. A healer from the age of 20, Ms Yorkshire-Selby explained she would massage other women to remove the pain from their bodies. In response to allegations that Mr Williams placed rocks into women’s vaginas and performed oral sex, she shook her head and said it “never happens”. Mr Sertorio asked her about an allegation that Mr Williams had sex with one of his alleged victims to improve her fertility. “That is strictly forbidden for a man to do that — that is the husband’s role,” she said. In response to Mr Williams’ alleged claims of being a “lore man” after one of the alleged sexual acts, Ms Yorkshire-Selby said it was “disgusting”. To become a lore man, the man had to be chosen by elders, she told the court. She said the roles of men and women in such matters were separate and there was no talking about each other’s “business”. A published author, Ms Yorkshire-Selby was born in the bush at Borden. Part of the Stolen Generation, she was raised at an Aboriginal mission in Gnowangerup before being transferred to Norseman. Menang-Gnudju elder Carol Pettersen also gave expert evidence at the trial, telling the court some of the allegations gave her “the creeps”. Ms Pettersen said Mr Williams’ father was a well-known elder and “medicine man”. But she said there was no cultural basis for putting semen on skin or having sex for protection. Menang elder Vernice Gillies told the court one of the alleged victims had come to her and told her about the allegations. Ms Gillies she had advised the woman to contact police.