‘I lost everything’: Predator teacher’s ‘disturbing’ interview

Middle-aged maths teacher Nicolaas Bester was jailed twice for his abuse of a 15-year-old Grace Tame — but he says he is the real victim.

Nicolaas Bester was 58 years old when he groomed and repeatedly sexually assaulted a 15 year old student, Grace Tame, while he was a maths teacher at the elite St Michael’s Collegiate Girls’ school in Hobart.

On arrest police found 28 pieces of child pornography. He was convicted to 2 years 10 months jail, but following an early release, Bester reoffended by making child exploitation material, bragging online that the abuse of Grace was “awesome”.

Former senior Saint Michael's Collegiate teacher Nicolaas Ockert Bester.

He wrote “judging from the emails and tweets I’ve received the majority of men in Australia envy me. I was 59. She was 15 going on 25 … It was awesome.”

Now, the twice jailed paedophile claims he is the real victim.

In December 2017, Bester gave a 17-minute interview with conservative commentator, Bettina Arndt who — in a further violation — included Grace’s real name and photo in the video, without her permission.

In that video Arndt describes Grace’s behaviour as “sexually provocative” and laughs as she references Bester’s second offence of creating child exploitation material saying “I can imagine how easily this happens”.

The YouTube video is also highly sympathetic towards Bester, painting him as the victim and Grace as the aggressor.

“I lost everything, I lost my home … I lost my job, I lost my status in the community. I lost absolutely everything. It was a devastating time [for me]” says Bester.

RELATED: Tasmanian sex assault survivor Grace Tame finally allowed to tell her story

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Tasmanian Grace Tame has won the right to release her name and speak about sexual abuse. Picture: PATRICK GEE

Later in the video, Arndt continues: “Over the years I’ve talked to many male teachers about sexually provocative behaviour from female students. Sensible teachers of course run a mile from these girls, but the teachers are still really vulnerable because they can easily be subject to false accusations if they reject or offend the young woman in question.

“The question that remains for me is whether there is any room in this conversation for talking to young people, particularly young girls, about behaving sensibly and not exploiting their seductive power to ruin the lives of men.”

Grace and her family say they were dismayed by the video and by Arndt’s commentary.

“Ms Arndt never reached out to me in the pursuit of balanced journalism; never heard my side of the story; was not present at any stage of the abuse; did not attend any of the court hearings; yet confidently labelled me a ‘provocative’ teenager who used her ‘seductive powers’ to ruin a man’s life,” Grace says.

“That she is so willing to support a twice convicted offender, trivialise the details of his heinous crimes, and even laugh off aspects of his offending is quite disturbing.

“I don’t harbour any ill will towards Ms Arndt, and I would be happy to sit down and have a chat with her to fill her in on some of the missing pieces in her reporting. I also would really like to know what she would have done. At 15.”

In October 2018, following a 138-page complaint made by End Rape On Campus Australia to the university regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, Grace’s mother Penny and Grace finally received confirmation that despite Arndt’s best efforts, Bester would no longer be allowed on any campus belonging to the University of Tasmania, where he was enrolled as a student. According to UTAS, this direction was issued to ensure Penny’s safety and the safety of other students.

It is unclear how Bester currently spends his time, but according to his LinkedIn account he intends to travel to South Africa to do musical concerts for orphans. On Twitter he continues to push for gun-rights. He remains a fan of Bettina Arndt and is openly critical on Twitter of anorexics and teen girls who self-harm.

Nina Funnell is a Walkley Award winning journalist and a director of End Rape On Campus Australia. She is the creator of the #LetHerSpeak campaign.