Tony Teasdale sentenced over negative notice breach

A convicted sexual abuser coached teenagers at a sporting club for months despite legally being unable to work with children, a court has heard.

A CONVICTED sexual abuser coached teenagers at a sporting club for months despite legally being unable to work with children, a court has heard.

Tony Teasdale pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrates Court yesterday to an offence relating to a breach of his negative notice.

Police prosecutor Joel Sleep said Teasdale worked as a volunteer coach at Gold Coast Stingrays sporting club, between July and November 2018.

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That was despite him being the holder of a negative notice, which was issued to him when his blue card was surrendered after he was charged with “disqualifying offences”.

The court was told Teasdale was convicted last year and was serving a jail sentence of three years and six months for indecent treatment of children.

A negative notice prevents people from working in a regulated business or providing regulated child-related activities. The offence carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.

Teasdale, who self-represented, said he was “confused by the terms of the negative notice”.

“I thought it referred to employment and I was never actually employed, so that’s where I was confused,” he said.

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Teasdale asked Magistrate Ron Kilner to take into account the sentence he was already serving.

Magistrate Kilner said: “It is a serious matter and I accept that there is a totality argument but the nature of offence is different from the offences that you were convicted on.

“To not convict and further punish you would not adequately reflect the seriousness of that offending behaviour.”

However, Magistrate Kilner said it would be unfair to interfere with his District Court sentence release date.

Teasdale was yesterday sentenced to three months jail, to be suspended after 24 days for an operational period of 12 months.