A jury has heard that a mother was astonished to hear her daughter claim she had been sexually molested by her Sydney swim coach after viewing a lyrical children’s animation with her family.
Tuesday before Downing Centre District Court, the mother testified that her child claimed teacher Kyle James Henk Daniels sexually grabbed her during swim lessons at a Mosman swim school.
A sobbing mother testified that her daughter claimed Kyle Daniels sexually molested her.
Former swimming instructor Kyle Daniels is accused of inappropriately assaulting nine of his pupils.
The minor, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, stated that in 2018, the instructor slipped his hands inside her swimsuit and groped her groin.
After explaining that she couldn’t refuse Daniels since he was a teacher and ‘he had his hands inside her,’ the mother gave her child straightforward counsel.
She told the jurors, “Well, you simply scream – you say no and you scream for mommy and daddy.”
Under questioning from defense attorney Les Nicholls, she acknowledged that she had not specified what her daughter meant when she stated that he had his hands inside her.
“I did not specify because I did not intend to ask leading questions… I believed it was more crucial that she explain it to the police.
The 23-year-old coach is charged with 21 counts of inappropriate behavior involving nine underage female students at the swim school.
He has pled not guilty to all allegations and is now facing a retrial for the alleged offenses, which include groping girls outside of their swimsuits and inserting his fingers into their vaginas on five consecutive occasions.
Daniels is accused of sexually molesting his students between 2018 and 2019 at Mosman Swim Centre (pictured) on Sydney’s north coast.
After receiving an email in March 2019 from the swimming center informing parents of the arrest of one of their instructors, the mother contacted her child’s school for guidance on how to approach the problem.
She was pointed to the Pantosaurus video, an online musical animation whose opening phrase is “What’s in your pants is yours alone.”
During the jury’s viewing of the footage, the mother was visibly upset and moved to tears.
After viewing the video twice at home, she reported that her daughter had disclosed the alleged abuse, adding that she had previously attempted to notify her parents.
“What was worse was that she said she had tried to tell me what had happened,” the mother recounted, shedding additional tears.
The proceedings resume.