A swim coach who groomed and sexually abused 11 young students over more than a decade could spend three times that behind bars for creating a culture where perverted behaviour was seen as normal.
Paul Douglas Frost was sentenced on Thursday after being found guilty of 43 offences over his abuse of children under his care at a swimming school in Sydney’s south-west between 1996 and 2009.
As the 48-year-old watched emotionless via videolink from Shortland prison, Judge Sarah Huggett said the coach “deliberately created a culture which facilitated his offending”.
This included normalising talk of sex among the children and teenagers he was teaching, encouraging sexual activity both with and between students, and engaging in graphic acts in the school’s changing room and storage room.
“Paul had built a culture of these types of things being normal,” one of his victims wrote in a statement to the court.
“I know they seem a bit horrifying and strange now.”
The victim said that as a boy he went along with discussing sexual matters openly with Frost as he wanted to be one of the “cool kids”.
“I thought talking about that … was just what people did,” he wrote.
“I thought it was normal.”
Frost, who was once a contestant on cooking show MasterChef, has been given a maximum jail sentence of 32 years, expiring in June 2055.
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He will be first eligible for parole in June 2047 after 24 years behind bars.
During his offending, Frost commented on one young student’s “bubble butt”, encouraged another to watch the sexually explicit TV show Sex Life and openly talked about the size of a boy’s genitalia.
He also encouraged one student to watch pornography on his office computer and “skinny dipped” with others in the pools at the swim centre.
Frost was arrested in September 2019 at his Sylvania home.
Initially charged with only 10 offences, further allegations were raised as police investigated his crimes.
The 43 charges the swim coach faces sentence for include several counts of sexual intercourse with a child under his care, multiple charges of aggravated indecent assault of a person under 16 and grooming children for sexual activity.
Huggett found Frost manipulated his victims and contrived opportunities for him to be alone with them.
She found each victim was a reliable witness who gave their evidence in court with “dignity and courage”.
A previous trial had its jury discharged without a verdict after 16 days amid allegations of bullying and refusal to deliberate that a judge worried would taint the outcome.
