State prosecutor tells Joseph Luke Williams he must be ‘unluckiest man in WA’ in fiery closing statement

State prosecutor Beau Sertorio has told self-proclaimed healer Joseph Luke Williams he must be the “unluckiest man in WA” to have six women wrongly accuse him of sexual offences in a fiery closing statement at Albany District Court. Mr Williams, 58, is fighting 12 charges of sexual penetration without consent and two charges of indecent assault in a District Court trial, with defence lawyer Bruno Illari arguing that the sexual acts were either consensual, did not happen in the way the women claim, or did not happen at all. 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. Mr Sertorio alleges Mr Williams, who lives in Denmark, abused his cultural knowledge, manipulating six women aged 18 to 34 for his own sexual gratification. Opening the ninth day of what has been a rigorous trial in Albany, Mr Sertorio said the women gave compelling and powerful evidence. He framed the case as a confrontation between a manipulative sex offender whose claims of mutual sexual attraction were fantasy — and six women who were assaulted in a vulnerable phase of their life. He said the alleged victims had sought a connection to Aboriginal culture to help them deal with personal issues. “The women were consistent, trustworthy and reliable...the women were very strong and honest as the day is long,” Mr Sertorio said. In a closing statement that was at times sarcastic, Mr Sertorio said there was no consistency in Mr Williams’ evidence, accusing him of leading the jury to “chase every rabbit down every burrow” with distractions. He said Mr Williams had portrayed himself as a “Casanova” throughout his evidence, with women “hounding him” and calling him a “sex guru”. “Clearly someone is lying,” he told the jury. “In his evidence, he was shifting his story becoming evasive and hesitant.” In the defence closing statement, lawyer Bruno Illari said Mr Williams was simply in a sexual relationship with some of the women. He said his client became an elder when his father died in 2011 and he had not used his status to seduce women. “The women became infatuated with him as the relationships developed,” Mr Illari told the jury. He said one of the women had made up a “lame excuse” to justify having sex with Mr Williams while her husband was away. “Sex was sex,” he said. “It was sexual reasons and nothing to do with cultural purposes or healing.” Mr Illari said memory was a factor in the case and that there would be “mistakes, errors and failure to recollect”. “I urge you to believe him,” he said. The 11-person jury is expected to deliver a verdict tomorrow.