Girl used teddy to describe swim coach’s alleged abuse

She is among nine young girls who allege Kyle James Henk Daniels, a former part-time instructor at Sydney’s Mosman Swim Centre (MSC), sexually abused them as they learned to swim.

The girls were enrolled in classes named after aquatic animals such as Seal, Seahorse and Platypus at the centre on Sydney’s north shore.

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Mr Daniels, now 22, is facing a total of 26 charges, including indecent assault, sexual touching of a child, and sexual intercourse with a child under 10.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Crown prosecutor Karl Prince told a jury on Wednesday an initial complaint by a seven-year-old girl about Mr Daniels led to an internal memo for all MSC instructors to ensure they were not handling children around their groins or chests.

After the girl told her mother in mid-2018 Mr Daniels had touched her between the legs, her mother called the swim centre.

She was happy to let the swim centre deal with it as she didn’t want to affect Mr Daniels adversely if it was just a mistake, the court heard.

Mr Daniels was supervised on his next shift by two more senior staff — one thought he was “too hands on”, the other saw no problems — and then told about the general nature of the girl’s complaint.

He signed a document saying he would work on adjusting the way he held children, the court heard.

The next two girls to complain about Mr Daniels were sisters who were both taught by him, Mr Prince told the jury.

He said in February 2019 the older girl wrote a note for her mother that read: “The reason I didn’t like my swimming lesson is because my teacher touched my _____”.

The girl would give evidence the blank space was “vagina”, he said.

After the note, the girls’ mother rang MSC and asked for her older daughter to change classes.

She also asked the younger sister if Mr Daniels had ever touched her on the bottom and she replied no, Mr Prince said.

After the younger girl had another lesson with Mr Daniels, she asked her mother to talk to her alone and said he had “pushed her on her private part”.

“She could feel his hand and it felt like there was a worm in her private part,” Mr Prince said.

The girls’ father rang MSC, who subsequently notified Family and Community Services and police became involved.

Mr Daniels was arrested on March 12, 2019.

Six more girls came forward with allegations after the publicity surrounding his arrest, Mr Prince said.

One of them was the 10-year-old who used a teddy bear to demonstrate for her mother how Mr Daniels allegedly touched her on her vagina while correcting her breaststroke.

Another said Mr Daniels touched her three to five times in each of the three lessons she had with him.

The touches she described to police include him penetrating her vagina with his fingers, the court heard.

After one of the alleged touches “she just kept swimming”, Mr Prince said.

“She remembers there were other children in front of her and behind her.”

The Crown case is that Mr Daniels’ touching of the girls was neither clumsy nor accidental.

“It wasn’t a result of poor teaching technique and it wasn’t a mistake,” Mr Prince said to the jury.

Although some of the girls could not name Mr Daniels — one thought her teacher was called “Kylie” — they could identify his brown-blonde hair and the fact he wore glasses in the pool, the court heard.

Mr Prince will finish his opening address on Thursday.

Then barrister Leslie Nicholls is expected to lay out Mr Daniels’ defence.

The trial continues before District Court Judge Kara Shead.

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