Mosman swim coach Kyle Daniels trial ends in hung jury on majority of charges

The trial of swim coach Kyle Daniels has finished without a verdict on most charges after the jury faced the virus outbreak, Christmas, and internal divisions.

Despite seven weeks of evidence a frustrated jury have failed to reach a verdict on Mosman swim coach Kyle Daniels after the escalating coronavirus outbreak whittled down their already divided numbers.

The hung jury means Daniels will remain in legal limbo until a retrial.

Nine young girls and their families will share that uncertainty until a second jury, next year, considers whether their accounts can be believed beyond reasonable doubt.

On Monday at noon 10 jurors sent a note to NSW District Court Judge Kara Shead SC in “considered and absolute terms” that there was “no prospect of agreement” between them.

Kyle Daniels arrives at the Downing Centre court in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

They’d been sent out on Thursday and, at that point, there had been 12 jurors. They were at loggerheads from the start.

Just 90 minutes after beginning to deliberate on Thursday the jury said they were deadlocked.

Judge Shead sent them out again and they quickly returned not guilty verdicts on four counts of sexual intercourse with a seven-year-old and one count of assault with an act of indecency.

All charges related to one of nine girls who accuse Daniels of abusing them in the Mosman Swim Centre pool during lessons.

Daniels closed his eyes and nodded softly as he was cleared of a handful of the worst charges.

His twin, Liam, approached the dock and smiled, sticking out his hand after the judge and jury left the room.

A second juror was discharged from the jury panel because of travel plans and did not return.

Daniels waved him away, there were still 21 charges hanging over him that the jury hadn’t swept away.

Judge Shead, Daniels’ barrister Les Nicholls and Crown Prosecutor Karl Prince were all concerned about repeatedly insisting on further deliberations.

They didn’t want jurors changing their minds to get home for Christmas, but a more sinister pressure was building on the court.

The coronavirus had upended the already congested court system, briefly suspending jury trials, but NSW’s apparent victory over the pandemic had allowed them to resume mid-year.

The outbreak in Sydney’s northern beaches, where Daniels lives with his family in Balgowlah, came just after the jury were sent out on December 17.

Kyle Daniels (centre) leaves court with his mother Janine and his father. Picture: Matrix Pictures

One juror, on Friday morning, said they had to travel interstate before Christmas. Judge Shead discharged them.

But the bigger issue was a second juror who also lived in the northern beaches and was unable to get to court in the city because of the virus lockdown.

Their absence meant no deliberation on Friday.

The outbreak continued to surge over the weekend so the only choice on Monday was to discharge that juror as well.

It was a fraught choice because juries of just 10 are not permitted to reach majority verdicts, they must be unanimous.

The jury in the Daniels trial, by Monday, had sent three notes saying they were totally divided. The foreman looked exasperated, shaking his head with frustration.

Daniels will face a retrial next year.

So it was no surprise that just over an hour after that second juror was discharged the foreman, speaking on behalf of the remaining 10 jurors, told the judge there was no chance of an outcome.

Daniels, his parents and twin brother, the detectives investigating him and the prosecutor all looked downcast and trudged from court declining to comment.

A retrial is now likely to take place next year with a new jury watching the same weeks of pre-recorded interviews with the nine girls.

The agreement to film the evidence of the young children at pretrial hearings spared them horrible hours in the witness stand at the trial and retrial.

But their parents were not so fortunate and have already once relived what one called the “brain on fire” moments their daughters first claimed they’d felt the swim coach’s hand between their legs.

Those parents will likely be called to court again and will likely face Daniels’ focused barrister as he interrogates every possible error in their claims.

Daniels’ legal team accused the police media unit of unnecessarily filming him.

Mr Nicholls’ defence of Daniels was more like a counterattack against the officers who led the investigation, particularly Detective Senior Constable Emma Stewart.

The court heard the detective altered the word “bottom” in a parent’s draft statement to “vagina” in the final sworn version.

Detective Stewart told the court she’d done so after speaking with the mother over the phone to clarify exactly what her daughter had claimed.

Many of the criticisms of the police case were centred around how statements were taken from parents and children because, Mr Nicholls put to the jury, there were signs of “contamination” in the investigation.

Detective Stewart, in many ways, faced a two month trial of her own as Daniels’ barrister dug into other parts of the case including the use of the media unit.

The official NSW Police Media Unit had filmed Daniels’ arrest in March 2019. Mr Nicholls suggested the police unnecessarily handcuffed the swim coach and paraded him in front of the cameras.

It was all to create a “media circus”, he said, and that may have driven parents of six of the nine girls to make compromised queries of their children.

Detective Stewart stood by the investigation - she was in court each day and denied every assertion she’d influenced the girls in their interviews.

Mr Prince, the prosecutor, urged the jury to look at the big picture.

Nine young girls, without knowledge of the others, had all come forward with very similar allegations of Daniels’ fingers picking, pushing and digging into their vaginas under the water, he said.

That was no coincidence, he said..

Daniels, he suggested, was a “brazen” offender who molested children just metres from their parents knowing the churning water hid him in plain sight.

The prosecutor cited experts who agreed memory often lacks detail and is full of contradictions.

Children don’t create false accusations, wholesale, and repeat them over and over, the jury were told.

Daniels had volunteered to take the stand as the final witness in his own defence and the final witness in the trial.

He said he didn’t remember most of the girls who alleged he’d touched them. He was calm, articulate and firm in his denials.

“Absolutely not” he’d replied to every allegation put by Mr Prince.

The court will reconvene in February to consider the next steps in the retrial.

Daniels walked from court on Monday silently past the barrage of news cameras that have recorded his every coming and going from court for two months.

His Christmas will likely be spent with his family in the currently locked down Northern Beaches seven miles from the courtroom but hardly 1000 miles from care.

DANIELS TRIAL ENDS IN HUNG JURY

The jury of Mosman swim coach Kyle Daniels has been unable to reach a verdict on the bulk of the accusations and has been discharged.

Daniels, 22, has been found not guilty of five of the 26 child abuse charges he was fighting in the NSW District Court.

There were 21 allegations left for the jury to rule on by Monday morning but, by midday, the jury sent their fourth note indicating they could not reach a unanimous decision on any charges.

Judge Kara Shead SC told Daniels’ barrister Les Nicholls and Crown Prosecutor Karl Prince the jury in “considered and absolute terms” believed that there was “no prospect of agreement” on Monday.

The jury were discharged just after midday and the court heard a retrial will likely be pursued in February next year.

The trial seemed doomed to the hung verdict from the first few hours of deliberation on Thursday.

Just 90 minutes after the jury retired on Thursday they sent a note saying they were deadlocked.

Judge Shead sent them out again and they quickly returned not guilty verdicts on four counts of sexual intercourse with a seven-year-old and one count of assault with an act of indecency.

All charges related to one of nine girls who accuse Daniels of abusing them in the Mosman Swim Centre pool during lessons.

On Friday morning the judge discharged one juror so they could travel interstate.

The jury were told they could not convene that day to deliberate because a second juror was stuck in the Northern Beaches as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

The jury were told, on Friday, that the juror couldn’t attend because of a “location issue”, not because of any concerns around the virus itself.

That second juror was discharged on Monday morning amid growing concerns about Christmas commitments and the continued impact of the growing coronavirus outbreak north of the city.

Daniels, his family, lawyers, Judge Shead and the jury all wore masks in the Downing Centre court room on Monday.

With just 10 jurors remaining it meant there could be no majority verdict - a mechanism often used to break deadlocks - instead it would have to be unanimous.

It appeared unlikely given three previous notes from the jury were increasingly adamant they could not agree.

The court heard the jury foreman shook his head with frustration earlier on Monday before being sent out to try again for the final time.

The foreman was asked the final question of the trial on Monday - whether he felt it was beyond the jury’s grasp to agree.

“It is, Your Honour,” he replied.

Judge Shead thanked the jury for their commitment through the seven weeks of evidence and the difficult deliberations.

She explained it was a “fundamental right” of the justice system in NSW to have the accused tried by 12 peers.

The nine girls who accuse Daniels, all aged five to 10-years-old, gave their evidence in pre-recorded videos at pre-trial hearings.

They were spared from giving evidence in the packed courtroom in this trial and that will likely be the case in the next trial as well.

Their parents, however, will likely have to relive the moment they claimed their daughters came forward with allegations of abuse.

Mr Daniels remains on bail.