New evidence uncovered in case of Sydney swim coach as 47 charges laid
The son of Ian Thorpe’s former swim coach will be slapped with 47 fresh charges when he returns to court today accused of historical sexual assaults on children.
St George Shire Standard
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The solicitor for a former swim coach accused of sexually abusing several young boys in his swim squad only learned he was facing almost 50 new charges after reading it today on the Daily Telegraph website.
Solicitor Sebastian De Brennan told Sutherland Local Court he discovered Paul Frost was facing 47 new child sex abuse charges in relation to nine additional boys he coached at a Padstow swim school between 1997 and 2009 after reading the story this morning.
However, Mr De Brennan foreshadowed he would still apply for his client’s release.
“We have a series of testimonies, some proposed conditions tantamount to house arrest and some other material,” Mr De Brennan told the court.
.Ex-Padstow swim coach Paul Frost was charged earlier this month with sexually abusing two young boys he coached in a squad team at the Doug Frost Swim School between 1997 and 2003.
Today, police will lay additional charges against the 43-year old including grooming, aggravated indecent assault and aggravated sexual assault offences.
Police will allege in court the man groomed and sexually abused a further nine boys on a number of occasions between 1997 and 2009, when the boys were aged between eight and 16.
The new charges will bring the number of Paul Frost’s alleged victims to 11.
Distressing police facts revealed after Frost’s initial arrest on September 18 claim he raped his oldest victim at the swim school, and on a different occasion touched his genitalia through his clothing with an open hand.
The younger victim was just 11 when Frost allegedly used his thumbs to stroke the child’s genitalia, and on a separate occasion pushed his hands inside the boy’s swimwear.
Alleged facts reveal Paul Frost allegedly exposed himself to the older victim before touching himself in front of the young boy.
The Sylvania man is the son of Olympic swimming coach Doug Frost, who coached the 2000 Sydney Olympics swim team and the 1998 Commonwealth Games team.
The investigation began in August when one victim came forward and told Bankstown detectives about the alleged abuse, before he alerted them to the second alleged victim.
Detective Superintendent Murray Reynolds said earlier this month police feared there may be more complainants.
“We take these matters very serious and if anyone has been subjected to any (alleged) sexual offences as a child, we encourage them to report it to police,” Det Supt Reynolds said at the time.
Det Supt Reynolds said Paul Frost allegedly groomed his victims for some time before the alleged abuse began around squad training sessions before and after school.
“There was an element of grooming — these children were young members of a swim squad who were under the control of a person,” Det Supt Reynolds claimed.
“We will allege this person acted alone.”
The swim school where Ian Thorpe learned to swim like a champion was listed by HCF Health Insurance as a Learn To Swim program provider as recently as July 2018, though the business’s ABN expired in November 2017.
Paul Frost had transformed himself from a junior swimming coach into a catering business owner who entered the first Australian season of MasterChef.
However, he fell on hard times after his catering business Hive Catering was liquidated.
The business owed a whopping $485,487 to creditors, with $319,000 to the Australian Taxation Office alone.
Paul Frost returns to Sutherland Local Court today.