Southern Sydney swim teacher faces Court on multiple sexual abuse charges

A jury has this week been told that a Sydney swimming teacher who allegedly preyed on the vulnerability of his young students through grooming and indecent sexual acts between 1997 and 2009.

Paul Douglas Frost, aged 46, is accused of sexually abusing 11 children over 13 years while working as a coach at his father's business, the Doug Frost Swim School at Padstow in southern Sydney.

On Monday, Crown Prosecutor Darren Robinson said Frost groomed his victims by building trust, and that he normalised sexual behaviour such as masturbation by frequently bringing it up in discussions with his young pupils.

In an opening submission to the District Court on Monday, Prosecutor Robinson alleged “the accused preyed on their youth, their trust, their vulnerability.”

Prosecutor Robinson stated that Frost would routinely masturbate and perform oral sex on his students in the swim centre’s male change room and storage room, dragged his hand over his pupil’s bodies as they swam, and encouraged them to swim naked in the facility’s baby pool.

The alleged victims include 10 boys and one girl. Frost is accused of performing oral sex on the children and enticing them to do the same to him.

Prosecutor Robinson explained in his opening that a trainee swim coach attending the school noticed Frost sitting with a student on his lap while massaging the boy’s shoulders.

The trainee wrote in a diary entry for that day “Paul is a bit strange in the way he acts around the kids.”

Frost allegedly told one of his male students, who he had kissed on the lips, that he loved him.

Prosecutor Robinson told the jury “the accused told the complainant, ‘Next time I see you, I’m going to f**k you’.”

He was also claimed to have spoken openly about his student’s genitalia.

It was also alleged that the swim teacher treated those who went along with his desires favourably, giving them and allowed them access to the facility’s gym equipment.

On one occasion, Frost allegedly lured a boy to feel a swimsuit he was wearing saying it was the same worn by Australian swimming superstar Ian Thorpe.

When the boy touched his leg, Frost allegedly said “that was nearly there, a little bit higher.”

Students are expected to give evidence that they complied with Frost’s instructions because he was their coach and they felt pressured into going along with what he wanted.

When arrested in 2019, Frost a one-time competitor on Masterchef Australia, was charged with more than 100 offences.

It was subsequently reported that he had lost his job as a primary school teacher at Malabar Public School in Sydney’s south and as a university tutor at the University of NSW.

He is the son of Doug Frost, who used to coach Ian Thorpe and the 2000 Sydney Olympics swim team.

With Frost pleading not guilty to all charges the hearing in front of Judge Michael King continues.

With APP.

Images: Paul Frost , credit: NSW Police.