Stuart Mould: baseball coach pleads guilty child porn and assault
A former junior baseball coach has pleaded guilty to a stack of child porn offences in addition to assault charges slapped on him for the cruel punishments he dished out to his young athletes when they failed to perform to his standards.
Manly
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A former Northern Beaches baseball coach has pleaded guilty to a stack of child porn offences in addition to assault charges slapped on him for the cruel punishments he dished out to his young athletes when they failed to perform to his standards.
Stuart Angus Mould, 71, who now lives on the south coast, appeared before Chief Magistrate, Local Court Judge Graeme Henson at Downing Centre Local Court last week.
The heavy-set elderly man, who coached local clubs between 1994 and 2017, sat slumped in his seat wearing a suit, striped tie and face mask to guard against coronavirus as his lawyer and the Crown went through the extraordinary list of 141 charges.
The court heard police withdrew 90 of the charges and he pleaded guilty to the remaining 51.
They include 14 child porn offences relating to the possession, production and dissemination of child abuse material.
The other charges were 36 of common assault and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Mould will next appear before the Sydney District Court on June 5 to fix a date for sentencing.
His lawyer argued Mould should not have to attend the next time his case was brought before the courts.
“Could he be excused on the next occasion? He has come all the way from Batemans Bay and is in ill health,” she said.
“Mr Mould doesn’t have the capacity or capability to operate electronic means.”
The Crown did not oppose his excusal given the appearance was only for the purpose of setting a date for sentence.
Judge Henson questioned whether he had the power to approve an excusal from the District Court but agreed to it in principal.
When Mould was arrested in August last year, he was originally only charged with 19 offences.
A police statement tendered to the court at the time alleged he kept a “torture tally” of the punishments inflicted on the boys aged nine to 20 and also filmed some of the abuse.
The statement detailed the punishments which included twisting the boys’ nipples, feet and wrists and snapping them with elastic bands until they developed welts.