Kyle Daniels trial: Dad didn’t want to believe swim coach allegations
The trial of Mosman swim centre coach Kyle Daniels was postponed on Thursday after the judge took ill.
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The jury deciding the fate of Mosman swim coach Kyle Daniels has been sent home after the trial’s judge fell ill in Sydney.
Judge Kara Shead SC did not appear at the Downing Centre District Court on Thursday where the 22-year-old Daniels is facing trial over the alleged abuse of nine young girls.
Daniels, who has pleaded not guilty to all 26 charges against him, is now in the second week of his five week trial in Sydney.
The jury were told a trial could not run without Judge Shead before they were sent home on Thursday morning.
A fourth girl was expected to give evidence on Thursday in the form of pre-recorded interviews with Child Abuse Squad detectives.
The jury would have watched a second video where Crown Prosecutor Karl Prince and Daniels’ lawyers then asked the girls further questions.
The trial is expected to resume on Friday, pending the condition of Judge Shead.
Dad didn’t want to believe swim coach allegations
The father of a young girl, allegedly assaulted by Kyle Daniels, told a court he “didn’t want to believe” it when his daughter first made the claim of abuse — then her younger sister claimed she too had been touched by the swim coach.
But the parents have been grilled over similar wording in their statements to police with Daniels’ lawyer asking why the word “bottom” was changed to “vagina” in sworn statements.
Daniels, 22, is facing trial in the NSW District Court after pleading not guilty to 26 indecent and sexual child abuse charges stemming from accusations made by nine young girls.
The jury has already heard evidence from two sisters who both said Daniels touched them in separate swimming lessons in the pool at Mosman in 2018.
The girls’ father told the court he was quite upset when the eldest daughter wrote a note saying she didn’t like her swimming lesson because her teacher “touched my ____”.
“I didn‘t want to believe what was written on the note and I wanted to give Kyle the benefit of the doubt,” he told the court on Wednesday.
The father told the court his wife, a few weeks later, said their youngest daughter also said she did not want to go back to the pool.
The mother told the court she, too, had divulged alleged abuse at the hands of Daniels.
The parents of the then six and eight-year-old girls alerted the swim school and spoke with police in early 2019, sparking the investigation and arrest of Daniels in March that year.
The mother, under cross examination from Daniels’ legal team on Wednesday, said Detective Senior Constable Emma Stewart urged her to make a formal statement to police so Daniels could be arrested.
The mother said the detective sent her a partially filled-out police statement following interviews with the daughters on March 5, 2019.
Daniels’ barrister, Leslie Nicholls, asked the mother why her draft statement, emailed to the officer, used the word “bottom” when her daughters described how they had been touched by the swim coach.
“(My eldest daughter) mentioned her new swimming teacher Kyle had touched her inappropriately in her private parts,” the mother’s statement reads.
“She pointed to the front of her, outside her vagina. I asked her whether she thought that him touching her bottom was an accident or deliberate.”
The statement was sent back and forth between the mother and Detective Stewart, the court heard, and the word “bottom” was replaced by “vagina”.
The language around the youngest daughter’s claim about Daniels finger feeling “like a worm” appeared to have been changed in a similar way between the draft and final statement.
The mother signed the final version of the document indicating it was accurate. She stood by that version on Wednesday.
“My child had already used the term (vagina), it’s semantics to me,” the mother told the court.
The jury has previously heard evidence from the youngest daughter that she pushed her legs together because Daniels had touched her “private parts”.
The mother later told the court her girls always knew the word “vagina” but would use the term “front bottom” because of their young age.
She said she gave her statement to police knowing it would be used to justify the arrest of Daniels.
The court previously heard the eldest daughter had claimed she was touched in early February and the mother changed her class so she would have a different teacher.
The youngest daughter had her class time changed but Daniels remained as her teacher, the mother said.
“I have to live with that,” the mother told the court.
“Did you make up that (your daughters) had told you the swim instructor had touched them on the vagina after you had a conversation with Detective Senior Constable Stewart?” Mr Nicholls asked.
“No, I didn‘t make that up,” the mother responded.
The father of the girls was extensively questioned by Mr Nicholls as to why the wording in parts of his statement was almost identical to the statement made by his wife.
He denied having copied her words but could not explain how the similar paragraphs were included in the statements.