Victim blasts coach who abused her as a child as 'selfish, evil' at his sentencing

CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to child abuse.

A young woman who survived the repeated indecent abuse of her coach as a child has blasted him as “evil” in court.

The man, who is aged in his 70s but is currently legally unable to be named, would not look at his victim when she read her powerful statement about the impact of his crimes to the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday (18 January).

“[He] single-handedly reached through time and changed the course of my life forever,” his victim told the court.

“The fact is [he] is selfish, conniving and evil.”

She said she had dreamed of becoming a professional sportswoman before she met him and had been performing well in her chosen field. However, the effects of the man’s “twisted” and “amoral” actions caused her career and love for the sport to vanish.

“It’s like [he] has infested my sport,” she said.

“He stole this huge part of my identity from me like it was nothing.”

The victim said that after her experience with him, she didn’t think she had the capacity to be a normal teenager anymore and spent her class time terrified he would try and contact her. She became depressed and isolated herself.

“I was grieving my life and I was pissed,” she said.

“I feel as though I’ll never be able to erase [his] skin from being on mine.

“There are times so dark I wish I did not exist.”

The victim was aged under 18 when the abuse began a few years ago and there was around a 50-year age gap between her and the man.

Her mother had asked for his help coaching her daughter, but about a year and a half later, the parents had become very concerned about how much the man was seeing and speaking to the girl and told him his services were no longer required. Afterwards, court documents say their daughter began to tell them about his behaviour.

For instance, the man had stared at and talked about her body, repeatedly touched her, gave her long hugs, took and kept photos of her in a swimming top, held her hand when they went for walks and kept asking her to kiss him.

He began sexualised conversations with the victim, got her to complete a sexual arousal questionnaire, gave her explicit details about his own sexual experiences, told her he loved her and repeatedly asked her for sex.

He had also written extensively about the victim in his diary, including making sexualised comments about her.

After their coaching relationship ended, he continued to email her. She told him she wanted nothing more to do with him, but he tried to contact her through a friend.

When speaking with police, she told them she felt pressure to spend time with the man out of fear he would stop coaching her.

Police ultimately raided the man’s house and found the password to his iPad was the victim’s name and birthday. They also learned he had commissioned an artwork depicting himself and the victim.

The man pleaded guilty to four counts of committing an act of indecency on a young person under special care and single counts of committing an act of indecency with a person under 16, as well as capturing visual data.

His lawyer, Tim Sharman of Tim Sharman Solicitors, said his client was a man in his 70s with no prior convictions. He spent seven days in custody before getting bail in August 2022 on conditions that were “practically house arrest”.

Mr Sharman argued the man had acknowledged his actions had a significant impact on the victim.

He accepted his client should face a sentence of imprisonment, but he asked for an intensive corrections order (ICO) to be imposed, a type of sentence based in the community.

This was opposed by prosecutor David Swan, who said only a full-time jail sentence was appropriate.

Magistrate James Lawton ordered an ICO assessment, continued the man’s bail and adjourned to continue sentencing in April.

A non-publication order currently suppresses his name, although whether or not it continues is expected to be debated in the future.

If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.