Pedophile and ex-Sunshine Coast water polo coach Dean Carelse employed at UK water park

A Queensland pedophile and former private school water polo coach convicted of grooming and possession of child exploitation material was working as a children’s lifeguard at a family friendly water park in the UK.

Dean Carelse.

A Queensland pedophile and former private school water polo coach convicted of grooming and possession of child exploitation material was working as a children’s lifeguard at a family friendly water park in the UK.

An ABC investigation traced the former Sunshine Coast teacher and water polo coach, Dean Carelse, to his new job at Butlin’s Minehead Resort – a family holiday park in southwest England.

Carelse was convicted of grooming and possession of child exploitation material offences in Queensland, on the Sunshine Coast, after police arrested him and raided his Maroochydore home in early 2021.

Police found more than 2000 child exploitation images and indecent recordings of students at a swimming pool.

He was sentenced to jail in 2022 after pleading guilty to almost 20 charges and was deported to South Africa the following year and had no restrictions placed on his movements.

Dean Carelse leaves Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Wednesday, June 2, 2021.

According to the ABC report, a UK background check on the 43-year-old failed to pick up his convictions, which included grooming a 13-year-old boy for sex and 14 counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 while he was a teacher and coach at Matthew Flinders Anglican College on the Sunshine Coast in the late 2010s.

ABC contacted the UK family friendly water park regarding his employment and they confirmed he’d worked there as a lifeguard for the past 10 months, but said he had been fired after the ABC made contact.

A spokesman said the company had immediately launched an investigation and that Carelse “no longer worked for us with immediate affect”.

A QPS spokesman said they had done their due diligence, despite Australian police not sharing evidence of international victims.

“As the material is child exploitation, it is not something that can just be sent. The QPS have no authority to send it without application in the form of an MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty) from South African Police. This has not occurred,” he said to ABC.