New trial commences in case of Sydney swim teacher charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse on minors

A second trial in the case of a Sydney North Shore swimming teacher who allegedly sexually touched his underage students has got underway.

Kyle Daniels is facing 21 charges relating to sexually touching nine young girls who he taught at the Mosman Swim Centre between 2018 and 2019.

The new trial was made necessary by a jury being discharged in December 2020 after failing to reach a verdict for the majority of the charges against Daniels.

It heard allegations that Daniels had touched the girls - who were under 10 years of age at the time - both on top and underneath their swimming costumes and on five occasions had sexually penetrated them with his finger.

Daniels, now aged 23, had been working part time as an instructor at the swim school while also attending university.

Crown prosecutor Tony McCarthy told the Court “the Crown’s case is that the accused has a sexual interest in young girls and that he acted on that.”

The Court heard a parent had first raised an issue with venue staff about Mr Daniels’ questionable behaviour around the end of July 2018.

Advising that the parent approached venue staff following a complaint by their daughter, McCarthy stated during his opening statement to the jury that the parent had said “I’m not accusing him of anything, I just wanted to raise some red flags.

“I don’t want him to lose his job over this. I don’t know if it was accidental.”

The Court heard one of the Swim Centre’s managers had replied “thanks for letting us know”.

The court heard that following a meeting to discuss the allegations, the managers also determined it was important that “nobody else knows about the allegations to prevent rumours”.

Daniels was then observed by managers of the swim school while he taught one of his swimming classes and found to be “too hands on, too close-contact” and “appeared overly energetic and frantic with the children”.

The Court heard Daniels was approached and told to change his behaviour and to only hold the children “appropriately”.

He was reportedly told “hips, legs and arms are ok but that’s it”.

Mosman Swim Centre management noted that after the discussion, Daniels was seen to tone down his teaching style and stopped “splashing and throwing the children in the pool”.

Several months later, venue staff were alerted to another alleged victim who was seen to become hesitant with Daniels despite generally being enthusiastic about her teachers.

She later wrote a note on a piece of paper which read, “the reason I didn’t like my swimming lesson was because my teacher touched my ….”.

The sister of that alleged victim would later reveal Daniels had put his finger inside her, an offence which carries the charge of sexual intercourse with a minor, McCarthy told the jury.

She told her parents it had “felt like a worm when he did it” and that she had “squeezed her legs together for the rest of the lesson so he couldn’t do it again”, McCarthy told the jury.

The Court heard the victim later told police she thought Daniels had “just done that on accident, because why would anyone do it on purpose”.

The Court is looking to close the facility in the coming weeks for an hour to allow the jury to visit.

Now managed by Bluefit, which was not managing the facility at the time of the incident, the company is accommodating the process by closing the facility briefly to the community.

Daniels was arrested in March 2019 and was originally charged with 48 charges including 25 counts of sexual intercourse with two children under the age of 10.

Pleading not guilty, in his 2020 trial he was acquitted on five charges while the jury was discharged because it could not reach a verdict on 21 outstanding sexual abuse charges.

If found guilty, Daniels could be imprisoned for life.

Image of Kyle Daniels. Credit: Facebook.