Grace Tame calls out ‘evil, sadistic’ abuser for continued threats, harassment

Grace Tame let rip on the twice-convicted sex offender who abused her for threats he made online. She was praised, but not by everyone.

Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame has been praised for calling out ongoing harassment from the twice-convicted sex offender who abused her.

When she was 15, Tame was sexually abused by 58-year-old Nicolaas Bester, a teacher at St Michael’s Collegiate School in Tasmania.

Bester served one year and nine months in prison for the abuse, as well as possession of child exploitation material.

In a lengthy Twitter thread on Monday night, Ms Tame shared screenshots of posts from an account she alleged belonged to Bester.

In one of the posts, published in April, the user who appears to be Bester says Twitter will be “liberated” by Elon Musk, presumably alluding to the billionaire’s bid to buy the social media company.

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Grace Tame talks about her experiences at Writers Week during the Adelaide Festival. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

He then refers to Ms Tame’s childhood email account.

“At last I shall come for (the email account),” the post reads.

“Here it comes! The good old comeuppance on its way … (the email account),” reads another example shared by Ms Tame, which was posted in August.

“While it’s been a largely positive experience in the public eye, and I’m eternally grateful for the unflinching support, it might come as a shock, even to some close to me, that I am still dealing with open threats and harassment from the man who abused me,” Ms Tame wrote to her followers.

“This has been the reality for 12 years now, behind closed doors for my family and me. Mark my words, I am not going anywhere though.”

She said the childhood email address referred to in Bester’s posts was known by “very few people”, and was “the login to my old Facebook he and I communicated on”.

Ms Tame added that she had reported the posts to police.

“This is targeted harassment of a known victim of his past crimes, designed to cause further harm. I’ve reported them to police, but our reactive justice system is too slow, and nothing’s changed. I know this is an experience many others would be able to relate to,” she said.

Grace Tame was Australian of the Year in 2021. Picture: Kishka Jenkins.

“This might not be the ideal platform to address this situation, but if not here, and if not now, then I ask, where and when? This is an act of reclaiming my power against a predator operating in plain sight.

“This man seems to think he is still relevant and can maintain control over me. This man who groomed and abused me when I was a child. He has known me since I was 14.

“I’ve written openly about how he groomed me into believing I was infatuated with him. Such is the insidious spell. It’s a much safer narrative to live with that you’re loved than confront the reality that you’re the object of an abuser who doesn’t care about you.

“I’ve written about our sordid conversations, in which I fawned over him and we arranged to meet. It’s taken years of growth and studying to understand. The processing is ongoing.

“I’m not ashamed of any of it now. But he should be. He was an adult who abused his authority … I know who I am. I am a survivor.”

Ms Tame spoke to ABC Mornings host Virginia Trioli on Tuesday where she called Bester “evil” and “a menacing predator” who was carrying out “open, targeted harassment online”.

She said she was speaking out because “evil thrives in silence”.

Listener who sent a message in to @LaTrioli's show accusing @TamePunk of being "thin-skinned" because she is calling out the twice-convicted child sex offender who abused her for sending threats online. She is many things. Thin-skinned is not one of them.

— Rohan Smith (@Ro_Smith) August 29, 2022

But one listener, a woman named Mary from Seaford, wrote in to the show to complain about giving Ms Tame a platform to air her complaints — one that was rightly afforded to her.

“Grace Tame has a very thin skin, always wanting an excuse for more publicity. We are over her and her antics,” Mary texted in.

Ms Tame earlier told Trioli that she was hoping to open people’s eyes to what kind of a man Bester is.

“He is particularly sadistic and particularly evil and there’s something frightening about that,” she said.

— with Sam Clench

Originally published as Grace Tame calls out ‘evil, sadistic’ abuser for continued threats, harassment