Mosman swim coach Kyle Daniels gives evidence at child abuse trial

Mosman swim coach Kyle Daniels has told a court that he couldn’t remember many of his former swim students but has denied sexually abusing any of them.

“I have never touched any student inside their swimmers,” swim coach Kyle Daniels has resolutely told a jury, breaking his silence for the first time since being accused of child sexual abuse beneath the water of Mosman pool.

Daniels, 22, has pleaded not guilty to sexual and indecent abuse of nine girls beneath the water of Mosman Swim Centre where he worked as their coach from 2018 to 2019.

The five-week trial has heard evidence from each young girl, their parents and the police who arrested Daniels in March 2019.

Daniels’ legal team has called the former swim coach as a witness. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

The swim coach sat silently throughout the proceedings until Tuesday when his legal team called him as a witness.

Daniels told the court about his childhood in South Africa and Singapore before he and his twin, Liam, moved with their parents to Balgowlah north of the city.

The young man said he had struggled in school and was bullied often but, once enrolled in the prestigious Knox Grammar, Daniels and his brother appeared to “find our feet”.

The court heard Daniels was sporty, competing in powerlifting and swimming. His background in waterpolo, the court would later hear, meant he kept his fingernails trimmed.

The jury has previously heard an allegation, made by one of the nine girls, that Daniels’ fingernail had hooked inside her private areas as he touched her in the pool.

Daniels, under cross examination by Crown Prosecutor Karl Prince, denied every accusation of indecent and sexual touching put to him.

Daniels’ parents outside court. Picture: John Appleyard

“You did it for your own sexual gratification,” Mr Prince put to Daniels.

“Absolutely not,” the swim coach responded.

“Your touching as alleged by (two girls) was deliberate touching in those areas,” Mr Prince pressed him again.

“No,” Daniels said.

Daniels told the court he couldn’t remember many of the nine girls who alleged he had abused them.

He said the hundreds of students and dozens of lessons he taught each week at Mosman were blended together in his mind.

Kyle Daniels being led outside his home by police in March, 2019.

Daniels at Manly Police Station.

But he said he could remember the girl who sparked the police investigation, in early 2019, because she was argumentative in his class.

Mr Prince put to Daniels that he only remembered those details because he had touched her.

“I did not touch her on the vagina and the reason I remember her is her argumentative behaviour,” Daniels said.

Part of Daniels’ defence, the court has heard, hinges on the way police conducted themselves in their arrest and investigation.