Former Brisbane basketball coach Donald Robert McCarron hit with new child abuse charges

Police are expected to lay more charges against a former kids basketball coach described as an alleged “child predator”.

Police are expected to lay more charges against a former kids basketball coach described as an alleged “child predator”, who allegedly told one complainant she was a “good girl” as he assaulted her, with a magistrate describing the case against him as “very strong”.

Donald Robert “Don” McCarron appeared in the Brisbane Arrest Court on Saturday where he applied for bail on five charges related to three children who he allegedly abused over a number of years dating back to 2006, during his time as a basketball coach.

The charges include four counts of indecent treatment of a child and one charge of entering a dwelling with intent at night.

Police will allege he told a 12-year-old she was “a good girl” as he sexually assaulted her as she lay in her bed around midnight, after he illegally entered her home during a party.

He allegedly stayed in her room, kneeling beside her bed for half an hour as he assaulted her.

Donald McCarron when he was arrested at his home.

The court heard that he is currently on bail on similar charges which was granted in this court in January this year.

Those charges are seven counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault, and one count of grooming over alleged offending against a female child.

Veteran magistrate Zac Sarra told the court that McCarron is alleged to have crept into the 12 year old girl’s bedroom in the mid-2000s and sexually assaulted her.

Mr Sarra told the court that police alleged the now-67-year-old was at a party with the girl’s parents, when all the children had gone to bed.

“The allegation is he disappears, and he ends up in the room with a child,” Mr Sarra said.

Police prosecutor Acting Sergeant Matt Bach described the alleged offending as “brazen” and told the court that police alleged McCarron “entered the complainant child’s bedroom and touched her” on her buttocks.

Police will allege he entered the girl’s house without permission through a door that was left unlocked after the child let the cat out.

He later returned to the party and his wife asked him where he had been, Mr Sarra said.

“Oh I was in the house,” McCarron allegedly replied, Mr Sarra said.

Police will allege McCarron lied and told his wife he had been at home.

“The child reported the sexual assault whilst in bed...to her mother at the time,” Mr Sarra told the court.

The child’s mother, stepfather and neighbour immediately challenged by the mother,

The matter was reported to police two days later and was investigated by a detective, the court heard.

The court heard Mr McCarron admitted entering the 12-year-old girl’s bedroom and touching her but denied any criminal intent or sexual motive.

“He said the kid was lying,” Mr Sarra said of what McCarron allegedly told police when he was questioned.

“Nil action was taken by police at the time, due to a misunderstanding whereby the complainant child’s family believed that the complainant child did not want to provide a statement to police or be exposed to any court process,” Mr Sarra said, reading from a statement filed by police in court related to investigations at the time and now.

Sgt Bach submitted that McCarron should not be freed on bail because it was “concerning” that he had recently told a young girl about his uncontrollable “sexual urges”.

Summarising the claims made by police in affidavits before the court, Mr Sarra said that a child had reported in recent months that McCarron told her “that when he was younger if he got a sexual urge there was nothing he could do to stop it”.

“He said that if wanted someone, then he would get them,” the child reported.

“It is inconceivable that you would have a 67 year old man having a conversation with a child” in this “vulgar and extremely inappropriate manner”, Mr Sarra said.

“He told her about an incident when he was younger when the girl ‘gave him a look’ and he climbed over a fence to get into a cinema to have sex with her,” Mr Sarra said.

“There is a couple of aspects to these allegations that leave a chilling factor of the story,” he said.

Mr Sarra said after reading material before the court he believed more alleged victims would come forward.

“I will not surprised if other allegations come forward.”

“There seems to be a pattern there, that’s the impression I get reading this material, but the pattern is not complete yet,” he said of the allegations of sexual assault.

“So we don’t know what the bottom of this story is,” he said.

“The allegation is he is a child predator.

“His reputation as a coach allowed him access to a whole range of young girls and women,” Mr Sarra said.

“The evidence, it looks like it is forming into a very strong case,” he concluded.

Defence counsel Katherine Wolff from Otsanda Law told the court that her client is retired as a basketball coach and that he had been found not guilty of charges of a similar nature in the District Court in October 2009.

She offered strict bail conditions, but Mr Sarra said that would not be enough to protect the community.

“The community has an expectation that vulnerable people in our community are protected, not preyed upon. And if we can’t protect our vulnerable, our old people, our children, what sort of a community do we have. I mean children have been exposed to this person, if the allegations are correct, and they look at him as a figure of authority,” Mr Sarra said.

McCarron lay down in the dock during part of the bail hearing, telling the court he felt “a bit light-headed”.

“Are you okay?” Mr Sarra asked.

“Yes, I was just a bit light-headed”.

“Do you want to go back to your cell? You can go back to your cell and lie down. This is about trying to deal with whether you go home today or whether you stay in custody to protect children in the community” Mr Sarra told him.

McCarron resigned from his role as basketball coach for the Northside Wizards on August 23, 2024, which was announced in a Facebook post.

In that year the police received several complaints of his alleged inappropriate conduct with girls he coached, police will allege.

The court heard McCarron has been the target of threats to harm him on a Facebook community group, with residents alleging they know where he lives in Mango Hill, in the City of Moreton Bay, north of Brisbane.

He was refused bail and will return to court on April 14.