Kyle Daniels trial: Prosecution’s 10 uniting factors against swim coach

The prosecutor of Kyle Daniels has downplayed inconsistencies in evidence and urged the jury to look at a “brazen” pattern of alleged behaviour.

A jury has been asked to overlook the gaps and contradictions in the testimony of nine young girls who accuse Kyle Daniels of sexual crimes with prosecutors saying there are 10 factors that unify the swim coach’s alleged attacks against them.

Daniels, 22, is at the end of a lengthy trial in the NSW District Court after pleading not guilty to two dozen child indecent and sexual abuse charges.

Crown Prosecutor Karl Prince, on Thursday, used his final address in the case to tell the jury there was no coincidence that the young girls had made similar allegations against their swim coach.

Kyle Danielsoutside Downing Centre Court. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Kyle Daniels was arrested in 2019.

Rather it was a “clear pattern of conduct” by Daniels, he suggested.

“It was brazen, the Crown submits to you, deliberate touching… it could only have been done for his own sexual gratification in each instance,” Mr Prince said.

The prosecutor had spent the bulk of his closing address running through each incident and the 26 total charges of abuse police allege Daniels committed against the girls between 2018 and 2019.

Unlike his opening address, some five weeks ago, Mr Prince confronted the inconsistencies in the evidence of the girls.

Some couldn’t remember Daniels’ name, others got it wrong, some said they had more lessons than swim centre records show. Their parents, too, had errors or contradictions in their recollection of events.

“If you look close enough, if you put each complainant and witness beneath a microscope you will find these inconsistencies,” Mr Prince acknowledged, but asked the jury to consider how much that really mattered.

Kyle Daniels with his mother outside court. Picture: Joel Carrett

He pointed to expert witnesses who said gaps and inconsistencies were the norm with memories particularly with information that was not the most important at the time.

The jury have previously heard children aren’t likely to say, over and over, that they were hurt if it wasn’t true.

One girl incorrectly told police Daniels had been caught abusing children on camera. The court has heard that claim was first aired in an incorrect news article.

Mr Prince said even if that girl had been given false information about other children it wouldn’t mean she was lying about what she had allegedly experienced herself.

“I would have had to be a false implant of a memory or a lie (by that girl),” he said, suggesting it was extremely unlikely.

The jury were told there were, according to the Crown, 10 factors which are common to Daniels’ “particular and unusual” alleged behaviour with each child:

The prosecutor said common sense should tell the jury that, if Daniels had an ongoing interest in young girls and acted on it, it made it more likely the specific 23 incidents took place.

He said it would be the duty of the jury to return a guilty verdict if they felt the Crown had proved the 23 incidents beyond a reasonable doubt.

The final defence of Daniels, by his barrister Les Nicholls, will begin on Friday morning.

Judge Kara Shead SC will then sum up the trial and give final directions to the jury before they begin deliberating early next week.