Paul Douglas Frost, a former swim teacher who once competed on MasterChef Australia, was found guilty of 43 counts of sexual abuse of a child on Wednesday afternoon.
These charges are about 11 kids who Frost used to teach at a swimming school in the southwest of Sydney. During the 1990s and 2000s, the abuse happened.
Before coming to a guilty decision on all counts, the NSW District Court jury was told it could come to a majority verdict.
Frost was found guilty of 43 charges, including having a sexual relationship with a child in his care or under his supervision, multiple counts of aggravated indecent attacks on people under 16, and setting up children for sexual activity.
It took the jury only 10 minutes to give all of the decisions.
Judge Sarah Huggett told Frost that he had been found guilty of the crimes after the trial. The Crown asked for Frost to be locked up, and even though Frost’s lawyers didn’t argue against it, he was handcuffed and taken into prison. Bail was turned down.
In a previous trial, the jury was sent home after 16 days without coming to a decision because they were accused of bullying and refusing to decide. The judge was worried that this would change the result.
Frost was a winner on the cooking show MasterChef in 2009. He comes from a swimming family; his father was an Olympic coach for Ian Thorpe.