Child sex offender Nicolaas Ockert Bester believed to have been banned from University of Tasmania properties

A child sex offender has been banned from all UTAS properties more than two years after complaints were first made about his presence, the Mercury understands.

The University of Tasmania’s Sandy Bay campus. It is believed convicted paedophile Nicolaas Bester is one of a number of individuals who have been banned from all university properties.

A CONVICTED paedophile has been banned from all University of Tasmania properties, it is understood.

In 2017, a group of students called on the university to banish child sex offender Nicolaas Ockert Bester from campus.

Bester was jailed in 2011 for sexually abusing a student while teaching at Collegiate and again in 2016 for bragging about the crime on Facebook.

He began a PhD at UTAS while on parole.

In 2017, an online petition that attracted more than 3500 signatures was handed to UTAS management, but the university said at the time it believed in “an agenda of participation and the power of education to transform people’s lives”.

Bester was living in student accommodation when he offended the second time and two complaints were made about his behaviour in the gym at the Sandy Bay campus.

A University of Tasmania spokesman told the Mercury on Wednesday the university’s current administration had “acted decisively, including excluding individuals from all University of Tasmania property and other measures, to best ensure the safety of its students”.

It is understood that one of the “excluded individuals” is Bester and that continuing his studies off campus would be an option available to him if he chose.

End Rape On Campus Australia director Nina Funnell said the university first received a written complaint about Bester in October 2016 and this was followed by a student complaining to the Tasmanian Ombudsman and then federal education minister Simon Birmingham.

“The university was in receipt of complaints about Mr Bester for over two years before any meaningful action was taken,” Ms Funnell said.

“Their historical revisionism on this point is disturbing, as is their inclination to praise the current administration, while failing to publicly apologise for years of inaction on this matter.

“We know that long delays in complaint resolution significantly exacerbate trauma and compound suffering and distress.

“The lack of public remorse regarding the significant mismanagement of this complaint suggests that students and staff have every reason to remain concerned about the university’s commitment to campus safety and student wellbeing.”

A UTAS spokesman said the university strongly disagreed with the suggestion students should be concerned “about the value we place on their safety”.

UTAS PLAN TO STOP SEXUAL ASSAULT ON CAMPUS

“One incident of sexual assault or sexual harassment is one too many — zero is the only acceptable number and that is the target we are driving toward,” the spokesman said.

“We were not where we needed to be as a university in the way we prevented and responded to sexual assault and sexual harassment. Much progress has been made and we have a great deal of work ahead of us.”

The Bester case sparked calls for urgent law reform in Tasmania so victims of sexual assault can choose to waive their right to anonymity and speak publicly.

The State Government is currently reviewing submissions before proceeding with any potential reforms.