A jury acquitted Australian swimming instructor Kyle Daniels on five sexual abuse charges last week, but reached a deadlock on the remaining 21 charges.
Daniels, now 22 years old, was arrested in 2019 and accused of sexually touching young girls while teaching swimming lessons. The list of charges at one point reached 59, though more than half were dropped before the trial.
Australia’s ABC.net reports that a jury acquitted Daniels of five charges, including sexual intercourse with a child. But the jury could not come to an agreement on the remaining 21 charges, and Judge Kara Shead dismissed the jury this week.
According to ABC, Daniels is accused of abusing nine young girls, all between the ages of five and ten. The allegations center around the years 2018 and 2019, when Daniels was a swim instructor at the Mosman Swim Centre in Sydney, Australia. Prosecutors say Daniels touched the girls inappropriately for his own sexual gratification, per ABC.
Daniels pleaded not guilty to all 26 charges, and said he had “absolutely not” touched any of the girls inappropriately. His lawyers argued that there were inconsistencies in the girls’ stories, and criticized the officer in charge of the investigation, saying she used leading questions in interviews with the girls and altered wording on a police statement.
The Daily Mail reports that the matter will “return to court on February 15, 2021.
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Prosecution ‘s case is faltering.