June 14th 2023.
Paul Douglas Frost, a former swim coach, has been found guilty of 43 child sexual abuse charges relating to 11 different children. On Wednesday afternoon, the NSW District Court jury convicted Frost of several charges of sexual intercourse with a child under his authority or care, multiple charges of aggravated indecent assaults of a person under 16 and grooming children for sexual activity.
The jury was initially directed to deliver majority verdicts, and the judge, Judge Sarah Huggett, explained that it would be preferable if the verdicts were unanimous. After deliberating for hours, the nine men and three women returned guilty verdicts on all of the 43 charges.
As they were discharged, Judge Huggett thanked the jurors for giving up months of their time to sit on the case, and informed them they would be able to request to have their names removed from the jury duty role. Frost and the jury spokesperson were allowed to remain seated while the verdicts were returned due to the length of the indictment.
Following the jury’s discharge, Frost was handcuffed and taken into custody. He will face a sentencing hearing in August. Prior to this, a different trial had its jury discharged without a verdict after 16 days, due to allegations of bullying and refusal to deliberate that a judge feared would taint the outcome.
Frost was a former finalist on cooking competition show MasterChef, and his father coached Olympic champion Ian Thorpe. This case is certainly a tragic one, and our thoughts are with the victims and their families.
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