Prosecutors have dropped all charges against former Australian swim instructor Kyle Daniels.
Daniels, 24, was previously charged with sexually touching nine young girls while working as a swim instructor in Mosman, a northern suburb of Sydney, in 2018 and 2019.
Daniels pleaded not guilty to all charges and has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
In October, Daniels was acquitted of some charges, but still faced 16 of which a jury could not come to a consensus. He was accused of the genital touching of female students, then aged six to 10, on the outside of their swimming suits on 14 occasions, along with two counts of sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 10.
On Friday, Sydney Downing Centre District Court was told the Director of Public Prosecutions would not proceed with any further legal action against Daniels.
“The Director of Public Prosecutions directed there be no further proceedings in relation to any of the outstanding counts,” crown prosecutor Tony McCarthy announced.
Judge Kara Shead noted there was an application for costs which will be heard in March 2023.
Daniels was not present in court but listened in to the case via video.
The Crown had previously said the commonality between the girls’ accounts of the alleged events was no coincidence and claimed Daniels took the opportunity to act on sexual attraction to the girls during lessons. However, with the jury unable to come to a conclusive verdict, all charges have been dropped.
Daniels had said he was “dumbfounded” by the charges.
“I had no memory of anything inappropriate happening, I don’t know where it could have come from,” he said in October.
Daniels was arrested in February 2019 and at one point faced up to 59 charges, though 33 were dropped before his initial trial. In November 2020, he was acquitted on five of those charges, and after five more were dropped in October, the last 16 have now been dismissed.
Why? And why does nobody care in the swimming community.