[2025] SADC 13

Prosecution: R In Person Counsel: MS LISA DUNLOP SC - Prosecution: DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS (SA) Defendant: C, E In Person Counsel: MR ANDREW CULSHAW - Solicitor: CALDICOTT AND ISAACS LAWYERS Hearing Date/s: 13/01/2025 to 17/01/2025, 20/01/2025 to 21/01/2025 File No/s: DCCRM-23-030120 B DISTRICT COURT OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA (Criminal) DISCLAIMER - Every effort has been made to comply with suppression orders or statutory provisions prohibiting publication that may apply to this judgment. The onus remains on any person using material in the judgment to ensure that the intended use of that material does not breach any such order or provision. Further enquiries may be directed to the Registry of the Court in which it was generated. R v C, E [2025] SADC 13 Reasons for the Verdict of her Honour Judge Fuller 19 February 2025 CRIMINAL LAW - PARTICULAR OFFENCES - OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON - SEXUAL OFFENCES - SEXUAL ABUSE OF A CHILD Accused charged with sexual abuse of a child - offence alleged to have been committed between 1983-1987 when the complainant was between 13 and 17 years old. Accused was complainant’s ballet teacher. Offending alleged to have occurred during a sleepover at the accused’s ballet studio when other students were present, at sleepovers at houses the accused rented, in the complainant’s bedroom in her family home when the accused dropped off the complainant after ballet class, on a trip to New Zealand and a ballet study tour in Europe, at the complainant’s grandparents’ home which the accused was renting for a short period and when the accused visited the complainant whilst she was studying ballet with the New Zealand School of Dance in 1988 for 11 months. Uncharged offending in other jurisdictions admitted pursuant to s 34P (2) (b) Evidence Act 1921. When complainant returned from New Zealand she was an adult and suffering from bulimia– complainant gave evidence that she moved into accused’s house upon her return because her bedroom had been rented out by her parents in her absence – sexual activity resumed - complainant continued to live with the accused until she was accepted into the Queensland Ballet Company in January 1991. Accused took complainant to hospital for her bulimia in March 1989 – hospital notes recording complainant’s observations and feelings towards accused tendered as business record. Complainant disclosed offending in general terms to fellow ballet dancer whom she dated briefly whilst in Queensland dancing for the Queensland Ballet Company. Prosecution commissioned expert report pursuant to s 29C Evidence Act 1929 in November 2024 without informing the accused’s legal representatives or the court at a pre-trial hearing in December 2024. Prosecution received expert report on 9 January 2025 and disclosed it to the accused’s legal representatives that afternoon, 1.5 working days before trial. Conduct of prosecution was in breach of s 123 (2) (d) and (e) Criminal Procedure Act 1921. Order made pursuant to s 125 (1) CPA that prosecution not permitted to lead the expert evidence. Held: Credibility and reliability of complainant’s account undermined by the evidence of the complainant’s mother, and two fellow ballet students and proved prior inconsistent statements on material topics. Complainant’s explanations for sleeping over at the accused’s house and moving in -- 1 of 88 -- with the accused upon her return from New Zealand implausible and contradicted by evidence of complainant’s mother. Complainant’s evidence of nature of relationship with accused and her conduct as ballet teacher contradicted by evidence of fellow students and hospital notes. Complainant’s evidence of opportunity for accused to abuse her in her own bedroom contradicted by evidence of complainant’s mother. Accused participated in very lengthy record of interview – accused’s denials compelling and could not be rejected beyond reasonable doubt. Verdict: Not guilty. Criminal Procedure Act 1921 (SA) ss 123(2)(d)(e), 125(1); Evidence Act 1929 (SA) ss 13(7), 29C, 34CB, 34P; Juries Act 1927 (SA) s 7, referred to. R v G [2015] SASC 186; R v Keyte (2000) 78 SASR 68; Douglass v The Queen (2012) 86 ALJR 1086; AK v The State of Western Australia (2008) 232 CLR 438; R v Cassebohm (2011) 109 SASR 465; R v Maiolo (No 2) (2013) 117 SASR 1; R v W, PK [2016] SASCFC 5; R v R, PA [2019] SASCFC 19; Rona v District Court of South Australia (1995) 63 SASR 223; Rona v District Court of South Australia (1995) 63 SASR 223; R v Quist (District Court of South Australia, Allen J, 8 September 2023) 7, quoting DPP v Ozakca (2006) 68 NSWLR 325 [25] (Rothman J), applied. -- 2 of 88 -- R v C, E [2025] SADC 13 Criminal 1 The accused is charged on Information with the following offence: Sexual abuse of a Child. (Section 50 (1) of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act, 1935). Particulars [The accused] between the 10th day of April 1983 and the 9th day of April 1987 at Adelaide, Eden Hills, Marion, Morphett Vale, Old Reynella, Seaview Downs or other places, maintained an unlawful sexual relationship with [SR], a person under the age of 17 years, by engaging in two or more unlawful sexual acts with or towards [SR], namely: (a) Touching SR’s genital area on more than one occasion; (b) Inserting a finger into SR’s vagina on more than one occasion; (c) Causing SR to touch her genital area on more than one occasion; (d) Causing SR to insert a finger into her vagina on more than one occasion; and (e) Causing SR to perform an act of cunnilingus on her on more than one occasion. The plea 2 The accused pleaded not guilty and elected for trial by Judge alone. I heard the trial without a jury. I now publish my reasons for the verdict I am about to deliver. Pre-trial applications 3 Prior to the trial commencing, the accused made an application pursuant to s.125(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) and at common law for an order that the prosecution not be permitted to lead the evidence of Dr Jane Goodman- Delahunty as set out in her report dated 9 January 2025. I granted that application for the reasons that follow. 4 I was satisfied that the prosecution failed to comply with the disclosure requirements under s.123(2)(d) and (e) CPA by failing to notify the accused in November 2024 that a report was being commissioned from Dr Goodman- Delahunty and failing to notify the accused of the details of the evidence to be addressed and adduced via that report. The chronology of events was set out in an email chain tendered by defence counsel: VD-D1. It is as follows: 1. On 4 November 2024, the investigating officer emailed psychologist Dr Jane Goodman-Delahunty inquiring as to her availability to provide an expert witness report into the behaviour of a sexual assault complainant. 2. On 4 November 2024, Dr Goodman Delahunty emailed the investigating officer to advise of her hourly rate and the likely time it would take her to compile the report. She said she could aim to have the report to the investigating officer by 13 December 2024. -- 3 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 2 3. On 11 November 2024, the investigating officer emailed Dr Goodman-Delahunty to advise that the request for the report had been approved and asked for advice regarding the material Dr Goodman-Delahunty would need to prepare the report. On the same day, Dr Goodman-Delahunty sent an email outlining the material she required. 4. On 20 November 2024, the investigating officer emailed Dr Goodman-Delahunty apologising for her late reply and advised her of the material in her possession that she could send. She told Dr Goodman-Delahunty that the trial was listed to commence on 13 January 2025. On the same day, Dr Goodman-Delahunty emailed the investigating officer requesting copies of the statements of the complainant and her husband, and the original report. The requested material was emailed to Dr Goodman-Delahunty the same day. 5. On 2 December 2024, the investigating officer sent Dr Goodman-Delahunty a series of questions to be addressed in the report, as requested by the DPP. 6. On 13 December 2024, Dr Goodman-Delahunty emailed the investigating officer to advise her that she had been working on the report and she would provide it within two weeks. 7. On 6 January 2025, the investigating officer emailed Dr Goodman-Delahunty advising that she had returned from annual leave and said she wanted to make sure the report was ready for the trial commencing at 2.15pm on 13 January 2025. 8. On Tuesday 7 January 2025, Dr Goodman-Delahunty emailed the investigating officer advising that she was ready to assemble the report and apologising for being behind schedule. She said she would provide it that week. 9. On 7 January 2025 the investigating officer emailed Dr Goodman-Delahunty with some further information. Dr Goodman-Delahunty responded the same day. Later that afternoon, the investigating officer again emailed Dr Goodman-Delahunty asking if the report could be available by the Wednesday evening (8 January 2025) or the Thursday morning (9 January 2025). 10. The report was provided to the investigating officer on 9 January 2025. It was disclosed to the accused’s legal representatives that afternoon, 1.5 working days prior to trial. 5 It is clear from VD-D1 that the request by the investigating officer for a report from Dr Goodman-Delahunty resulted from a directive to do so from the prosecution. 6 At no time prior to 9 January 2025, did the prosecution advise the accused’s legal representatives that the prosecution had sought an expert report for the purposes of deploying it at the accused’s trial by calling the author of the report to give evidence consistent with its contents. 7 On 13 December 2024, the court held a second directions hearing call over. The solicitor with the conduct of the file for the DPP attended the hearing but did not advise the court or the accused of the request for a report from Dr Goodman- Delahunty. The prosecutor told the court that the trial was ready to proceed. 8 I was told by the prosecutor, Ms Dunlop SC, that the solicitor with the conduct of the file did not disclose the fact that the report had been commissioned -- 4 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 3 from Dr Goodman-Delahunty to the defence because the solicitor believed that the report was unlikely to arrive in time. This explanation was unsatisfactory and did not excuse the failure to comply with the statutory obligations of disclosure. I accepted that this was not a deliberate attempt to ambush the accused, and the accused did not suggest otherwise. Nevertheless, the outcome was the same because the report was disclosed 1.5 working days before trial. The accused was placed in this position through no fault of her own. 9 The failure to disclose the report was in breach of s 123(2)(d) and (e) CPA. Section 123 CPA relevantly provides: 123—Case statements (1) Subject to section 122, where the Magistrates Court commits a defendant charged with an indictable offence to a superior court for trial, the prosecution— (a) must present, or cause to be presented, an information against that person; and (b) must, not less than 6 weeks before the date fixed for the defendant's arraignment in the superior court— (i) file in that court; and (ii) give to the defendant or a legal practitioner representing the defendant, a prosecution case statement. (2) A prosecution case statement must include (in accordance with prosecution duties of disclosure) the following: (a) a summary of the alleged facts; (b) a description of evidence that may be led by the prosecution in relation to each element of the offence; (c) a list of the witnesses the prosecution intends to call at trial; (d) details of each expert witness the prosecution intends to call at trial; (e) details of any additional witness statement that the prosecution is aware will be obtained, but which has not yet been obtained; (f) whether the prosecution intends to lead discreditable conduct evidence (within the meaning of section 34P of the Evidence Act 1929) that relies on a particular propensity or disposition of the defendant as circumstantial evidence of a fact in issue and, if so, details of that evidence; (g) whether the prosecution intends to make any pre-trial applications under the Evidence Act 1929 and, if so, a copy of any such application; (h) whether the trial is one that is to be given priority under section 50B of the District Court Act 1991; (i) an estimate of the length of the prosecution case; -- 5 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 4 (j) whether any interpreter will be required for the prosecution case (and if so, the language that the interpreter will be required to interpret). … (6) The obligation to disclose information or material of a kind that is required to be included in a case statement under this section is ongoing until— (a) the defendant is convicted or acquitted of the offence; or (b) the prosecution is terminated. (7) In accordance with subsection (6), if— (a) any information or material included in a case statement by a party subsequently changes; or (b) any information or material is obtained or anything else occurs after a case statement has been filed in a court by a party that would have been required to be included in that party's case statement if it had been obtained or had occurred before the case statement was so filed, the information, material or occurrence is to be disclosed to the other party to the proceedings as soon as practicable. [Emphasis added] 10 The 13-page report referenced over 50 papers or studies. Dr Goodman- Delahunty answered the following five questions in her report: 1. Why a child would not necessarily have made a complaint following an instance of being sexually assaulted or may not make a complaint to her parents. 2. Why a child would perform a sexual act at the request of a defendant to please the defendant. 3. Why a complainant would reassure a defendant despite a defendant’s abuse of the complainant. 4. Why a complainant may continue to have contact with a defendant even after moving away. 5. Why a complainant may move in with a defendant despite previous offending against the complainant. 11 Given the timing of the provision of the report, it was impossible for the accused to address the contents of the report, make any relevant inquiries, including the commissioning of an expert to consider the contents of the report, or make any forensic decisions regarding the impact of the report upon the cross- examination of the complainant or the trial generally. If I permitted the evidence to be led, the only mechanism to cure this unfairness was to adjourn the trial. The earliest the trial could be relisted before me was 3 March 2025, but defence counsel's availability was such that the trial would likely not conclude in that time. -- 6 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 5 12 The evidence proposed to be adduced was not fundamental or crucial to the prosecution case and there was no basis upon which I could conclude that without it, the prosecution could not prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt. The evidence proposed to be led, as set out in the report, was designed to dispel myths and misconceptions about behaviours of child victims of sexual abuse that may be viewed by the trier of fact as counterintuitive. 13 The evidence was not intended to support a finding that it was more likely that the complainant was telling the truth about the alleged conduct the subject of the charge. Rather, the evidence would provide an understanding of the behavioural context in which to assess the particular circumstances of the case, as found by the trier of fact. It did not seek to establish, nor could it establish that the complainant's behaviour was positively confirmatory of sexual abuse having occurred as alleged. 14 Section 29C of the Evidence Act 1929 (EA), the provision pursuant to which the evidence of Dr Jane Goodman-Delahunty was made admissible, has been in operation since 1 June 2022, before the prosecution against this accused was commenced. The Information in this matter was laid in the Magistrates Court on 3 March 2023 and the accused was committed for trial in the District Court in August 2023. The trial date was set when the accused was arraigned in the District Court. 15 During submissions, the prosecutor explained that s 29C EA had been utilised by the prosecution to adduce evidence of this kind in a trial that proceeded in May 2024. Plainly, the prosecution had been aware of s 29C EA since its commencement and aware well ahead of the date of this trial that there are expert witnesses in Australia who can give evidence of the kind that is admissible under s 29C EA. 16 The prosecutor explained, and I accepted, that the Director of Public Prosecutions had been considering s 29C EA and its use in the trial in May 2024, and then commenced internal education sessions before determining to deploy it in this trial and other trials. However, those decisions and the timing of the education process were matters entirely within the Director's control against the background of the Director's knowledge of his obligations under the CPA and, specifically, the trial date in this matter. 17 Against this background, I concluded that it would be unfair to the accused to allow this evidence to be led if the trial commenced on 13 January 2025 and if I permitted it to be led, the inevitable result would be that the trial could not proceed on the date on which it has been listed. Although an available mechanism to remedy the unfairness occasioned by the late provision of the report was the adjournment of the trial, that would result in another delay in a case in which the allegations date back to the period between 1983-1987. Whilst the adjournment of the trial would not deprive the accused of an opportunity adequately to defend -- 7 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 6 herself, that is not the only form of prejudice to be considered on this application. As Allen DCJ observed in his Honour’s ruling in R v Quist1: A person is presumed innocent unless and until a jury returns a verdict finding otherwise. The importance that our system places on that presumption is itself one of the reasons that a defendant is entitled to be tried as expeditiously as possible. Another is the inevitable toll that being the subject of very serious allegations can take on a person presumed to be innocent. Speaking in the context of appellate review of a refusal to grant the prosecution an adjournment, Rothman J made the following observation: It cannot be stressed enough that the elements associated with the right of an accused to escape the continuing state of anxiety and insecurity that necessarily accompanies a criminal charge must be paramount…2 18 The accused’s application for an order refusing to permit this evidence to be led involved an assessment of procedural unfairness of the type discussed in Rona v District Court of SA (1995) 63 SASR 223, the principles governing the exercise of common law remedies to cure procedural unfairness, and the statutory remedy enshrined in s 125 CPA. That section provides: A superior court determining proceedings for an indictable offence may refuse to admit evidence in the proceedings that is sought to be adduced by a party who has failed to comply with disclosure requirements applying to the evidence. 19 An order refusing permission to adduce this evidence is not made for the purpose of sanctioning or punishing the prosecution for a failure to comply with s.123 CPA or common law principles of case-flow management; an order of this type is made for the purpose of ensuring that the trial of the accused was fair. 20 In my view, it was not appropriate to utilise the available remedy of an adjournment of the trial (which was not sought by the accused) when the unfair position in which the accused was placed was the direct result of the prosecution’s failure to comply with common law case-flow management principles and the statutory obligations of disclosure enshrined in s 123 CPA. There was no satisfactory excuse for this egregious (albeit not malicious) failure. The evidence was neither fundamental, nor integral to the prosecution case. In those circumstances, this was one of those exceptional cases where the Court should set its face against an egregious breach of the statutory obligations imposed upon the prosecution under the CPA. 21 In the exercise of my discretion, I granted the application and, pursuant to s 125 CPA, ordered that the prosecution was not permitted to adduce the evidence contained in the report of Dr Goodman-Delahunty dated 9 January 2025. 22 The remaining application by the accused was for the exclusion of evidence to be led from the complainant that the accused was violent towards her when the 1 (District Court of South Australia, Allen J, 8 September 2023) 7, quoting DPP v Ozakca (2006) 68 NSWLR 325 [25] (Rothman J). 2 DPP v Ozakca (2006) 68 NSWLR 325 [25]. -- 8 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 7 complainant was an adult and nearly two years after the conclusion of the alleged offending. In her first statement to police dated 1 July 2020, the complainant alleged that at a time after she had returned from New Zealand suffering from bulimia, the accused would beat her, including smacking her head against the wall and dragging her up the hall by her hair. She said the accused would give her gold charms after each beating. The accused beat her on areas of her body that would be covered by her dance wear. She would slap her on the face which did not bruise. She would hit her to the back of the head. The complainant also recalled that on the accused’s birthday when the complainant was 20 years old, they were at the Dance Centre at Whitmore Square. The complainant ate something and then went to the toilet to throw up. In the toilet block, the accused grabbed her by the throat and choked her and hit her head against the besser blocks in the toilet whilst telling the complainant that if she did not eat anything she would die, and the accused would rather kill her herself. The accused then kneed her in the pubic bone. The complainant fought back and told the accused never to touch her again. 23 The prosecution conceded that this was clearly discreditable conduct evidence, but said the probative value of this evidence outweighed its prejudicial effect. The asserted permissible use of this evidence was to demonstrate the exercise of control and dominion over the complainant which, during the period of the alleged offending, had not taken the form of violence but had taken other forms. It was also submitted that this evidence explained why the complainant stayed with the accused and why she failed to complain about the prior sexual abuse. During submissions the prosecution conceded that the complainant did not draw any connection between the violence and her decision to stay with the accused or her failure to complain about the sexual abuse. The prosecutor also contended that the final act of violence in the toilet block explained why the relationship between the accused and the complainant ended. It was shortly after this that the complainant moved to Queensland having successfully auditioned for the Queensland Ballet Company. 24 Prior to the argument on this application concluding, the prosecution obtained a further statement from the complainant. Although the statement referred (in part) to the violence the complainant had mentioned in her first statement, she did not suggest that there was any connection between the violence and her decision to remain in a relationship with the accused or her failure to complain. 25 Defence counsel said the evidence was highly prejudicial and of no probative value given it post-dated by a significant margin the alleged offending and the complainant did not suggest (explicitly or implicitly) that the violence had any connection to her decision to stay in a relationship with the accused or her failure to complain. The decision to move to Queensland was because the complainant obtained a position with the Queensland Ballet Company, and this was the bookend to the relationship. It was not necessary to lead the violence alleged to have led up to it in order to explain why the relationship ceased. -- 9 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 8 26 In the exercise of my discretion, I refused to admit this evidence pursuant to s 34P (2)(a) EA. The evidence of violent behaviour alleged to have been perpetrated by the accused towards the complainant is discreditable conduct, to which s 34P EA applies. However, the probative value of this evidence which, in my view, was slight if not negligible, did not outweigh its prejudicial effect. The absence of any connection to the complainant’s decision to remain in a relationship with the accused or her failure to complain, together with the fact that the alleged violence post-dated the allegations by almost two years rendered the evidence of minimal probative value to any fact in issue. Elements of the offence 27 To prove the charge of Sexual Abuse of a Child the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that: • The accused knowingly maintained a relationship with the complainant. This element requires more than proof alone of the commission of two or more unlawful sexual acts. • Whilst that relationship was in existence, the accused intentionally committed two or more unlawful sexual acts with, or toward, the complainant. • At the time the accused committed two or more unlawful sexual acts, she was an adult. • At the time the accused committed two or more unlawful sexual acts, the complainant was a child. 28 An unlawful sexual act is any act that constitutes or would constitute, (if particulars of the time and place at which the act took place were sufficiently particularised) a sexual offence. 29 In this case, the unlawful sexual acts alleged are as follows3: Indecent assault 30 Particulars (a), (b), (c) and (d) allege the offence of indecent assault.4 An indecent assault is an assault accompanied by, or committed in, circumstances of indecency. The prosecution must prove an assault. An assault is the intentional and unlawful application of force to another. The prosecution must prove the assault was accompanied by, or committed in, circumstances of indecency. There must be a sexual connotation. Whether an assault is indecent is for me to determine by reference to prevailing community standards of what is considered indecent. 3 These are the unlawful sexual acts provided for by the legislation in force at the relevant time. 4 In respect of particulars (c) and (d) if the proved conduct involved the accused taking the complainant’s hand and placing it on and in her vagina, the offence is an indecent assault. -- 10 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 9 Unlawful sexual intercourse 31 From 1 December 1985, the conduct alleged in particulars (b), (d) and (e) also constituted the offence of unlawful sexual intercourse.5 To prove the charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a child above the age of 12 and under the age of 17 the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt: • The accused had sexual intercourse with the complainant. • The complainant was of or above twelve years of age and under the age of 17. 32 Sexual intercourse is defined as including the penetration of a person’s vagina, labia majora or anus by any part of the body of another person, fellatio or cunnilingus. Act of gross indecency 33 In respect of particulars (c) and (d) if the proved conduct involved the complainant touching the accused without the accused guiding her hand the unlawful sexual act is an act of gross indecency. In respect of particular (e), if the proved conduct occurred prior to 1 December 1985 the unlawful sexual act is an act of gross indecency. 34 At the relevant time, it was an offence to commit an act of gross indecency towards or in the presence of a person under the age of 16. 35 If the accused intentionally caused the complainant to perform an act of gross indecency in her presence when the complainant was under 16 this unlawful sexual act will be proved. 36 Indecency carries with it a sexual connotation. ‘Indecency’ means some form of sexual conduct which, in the opinion of the trier of fact, is indecent having regard to the complainant’s age, the accused’s age, the circumstances of the alleged conduct and the contemporary standards of morality and decency of right-thinking members of the community. The act must be not only indecent but grossly indecent. The word gross means something that is more than minor. It must be grossly indecent by reasonable, contemporary standards. Issues in dispute 37 The central issue in dispute was whether the alleged offending as described by the complainant in fact occurred. There was no dispute that the accused knowingly maintained a relationship with the complainant and that, during the charged period, the accused was an adult, and the complainant was a child. 5 In respect of particular (e), where the proved conduct involved the complainant performing oral sex on the accused prior to 1 December 1985 the offence is one of an act of gross indecency. -- 11 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 10 General directions 38 The accused elected for trial by Judge sitting without a jury pursuant to the provisions of section 7 of the Juries Act 1927 (SA). As Lovell J observed in R v G,6 whilst the Act is silent as to any requirement regarding the contents of the reasons for verdicts, such requirements are established in a number of authorities: see R v Keyte (2000) 78 SASR 68, Douglass v The Queen (2012) 86 ALJR 1086; and AK v The State of Western Australia (2008) 232 CLR 438 per Heydon J.7 39 The general directions were summarised by Lovell J in R v G. They are as follows: As the Judge of the facts and law, I must find the facts and draw the inferences from them as well as apply the law to the facts that I find. I must bring an open and unbiased mind to the evidence and view it clinically and dispassionately and not let emotion enter into the decision-making process. Both the prosecution and the accused are entitled to my verdict free of partiality or prejudice, favour or ill-will. I must then deliver my verdict according to the evidence. The prosecution bears the onus of proving the guilt of the accused at all times. The accused does not have to prove that he did not commit the offence as charged. The standard of proof of the prosecution case is proof beyond reasonable doubt and the accused cannot be found guilty of the offence unless the evidence, which I accept, satisfies me beyond reasonable doubt of his guilt. In the findings I make in these reasons, I make those findings beyond reasonable doubt unless I specify otherwise. The accused is presumed by law to be innocent of the offence unless and until the evidence I accept satisfies me that each and every element of the charge has been proved beyond reasonable doubt. I must determine whether each of the witnesses called are truthful and reliable, that is, whether I can rely on the evidence that the witness gives me and so find the facts about which the witness has given evidence. I can accept part of a witness’s evidence and reject part of that evidence or accept or reject it all. If, however, the evidence which I accept fails to satisfy me beyond reasonable doubt, of any or all of the elements of the offence charged, then the accused remains presumed innocent and I must find a verdict of not guilty. 40 The accused elected not to give evidence. She was under no obligation to give evidence. No adverse inference may be drawn from the fact that she has exercised that right. In particular, the silence of the accused does not constitute any form of admission, may not be used to fill gaps (if any) in the prosecution case and may not be used as a makeweight in assessing whether the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.8 The accused’s record of interview, and any admissions or denials I find contained therein, is evidence in the case that I can take into account in determining whether the charge has been proved beyond 6 R v G [2015] SASC 186. 7 [61] – [116]. 8 Azzopardi v R (2001) 205 CLR 50 at [51] and R v Weetra (2010) 108 SASR 232 at [67]. -- 12 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 11 reasonable doubt. There is no onus on the accused to prove anything she said in her record of interview. Overview of prosecution case as opened on 41 The accused was the complainant’s ballet teacher from the age of 12 until she was around 20. From a young age, the complainant’s life ambition was to become a professional ballerina. The complainant left mainstream school aged 16 to study ballet full time with the accused. She became very close to the accused given the time they spent together. 42 The accused was 25 years older that the complainant. On the prosecution case, she exploited every aspect of her relationship with the complainant. She gave her gifts and made her feel special and talented. She told the complainant that she would make her a dancer and that she would not make it without her. The accused was grooming the complainant for her own sexual gratification. The abuse commenced when the complainant stayed overnight at the accused’s house, after the accused took her to see a professional ballet concert at the Festival Theatre. When they returned to the accused’s home after the concert, the accused offered to run the complainant a bath using bubble bath. Although she was not there when the complainant got into the bath, the complainant called out for help when the bubbles started overflowing. The accused came into the bathroom and started scooping the bubbles out of the bath and in doing so made contact with the complainant’s legs and groin area by running her hands over her. Following the bath, the accused told the complainant she could sleep with her in her bed. The complainant became anxious and said she wanted to go home. Eventually she went to sleep on the couch in the lounge room. 43 The accused started a new ballet studio and when it had been fitted out, there was a celebratory sleepover for some of the more senior children attending the ballet school. Everyone attending had sleeping bags on the floor of the studio. When the celebration concluded, the accused told the complainant to sleep next to her on the floor. The complainant did so and left her sleeping bag unzipped in case she needed to go to the toilet during the night. When everyone was in their sleeping bags, the accused put her hand inside the complainant’s sleeping bag and touched her genital area. The complainant pushed away the accused’s hand and went to the toilet, where she stayed for a while. Upon her return, the accused did the same thing. The complainant got out of her sleeping back and went to the toilet. Upon her return, she turned the sleeping bag the other way, so the zip was on the other side of the accused. In the morning, the accused told her that she felt nice. The accused told her not to tell anyone and that she would not be believed because ‘you’re you and I’m me’. 44 The complainant was sexually naïve and had not discussed sexual matters with her mother or had sexual education at school. She did not understand why the accused had behaved this way, but she did not like it. -- 13 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 12 45 The complainant was determined to become a ballet dancer and believed that she needed the accused’s tuition to achieve that goal. As a result, she continued to go to ballet classes with the accused all the way into adulthood. She began to sleep over at the accused’s house on weekends so she would not miss ballet classes. On the first or second of those sleepovers, she slept in the accused’s bed. The accused, who was naked, asked her to give the accused a cuddle. She told the complainant that she could make her a dancer and started to touch her legs, telling her she had strong legs. She continued to say she could make the complainant a dancer. The accused then took the complainant’s hand and moved it to the accused’s genital area causing her to digitally penetrate the accused. The accused then digitally penetrated her. This conduct during sleepovers became a regular feature of the complainant’s life. Over time, the conduct progressed to discussions about oral sex and orgasms. The accused told her how to perform oral sex on her and what she liked. The complainant then performed oral sex on the accused but when the accused offered to do the same for her she declined. Over time, the accused no longer needed to ask the complainant to touch her. 46 On two occasions, the accused took the complainant overseas for ballet- related trips. The first trip was to New Zealand, the accused’s birthplace, and the second was a trip to Europe with two other students. During the trip to New Zealand there was more sightseeing than ballet-related activities and for part of the holiday, they stayed with the accused’s parents. The offending continued during both trips. On each trip, the accused and the complainant shared a bedroom. 47 There was a period of time when the complainant’s grandparents went away for a few months and the accused house-sat for them. The complainant was also sexually abused by the accused at that house. 48 The sexual abuse also occurred in the complainant’s bedroom in her family home. It was not uncommon for the accused to drop students home after evening classes. The complainant was the last student to be returned home and the accused would come in for a coffee with the complainant’s parents. On these occasions, the accused would go into the complainant’s bedroom for an increasingly longer duration as time went on. Whilst in the complainant’s bedroom, the accused would touch the complainant and continue to tell her ‘I can make you a dancer’. The complainant was most concerned that her parents might walk in at any time. She did not feel safe in her own home. 49 When the complainant was 16 years old, she left mainstream school to study ballet full time with the accused. When the complainant was 17 years old, she was accepted into the New Zealand School of Dance and left Adelaide to live there for a year. Whilst in New Zealand she put on weight. Her parents visited her. When the accused visited her, she told the complainant she needed to lose weight. 50 The complainant became bulimic and lost weight. After almost a year, she returned to Adelaide. Her parents stopped supporting her financially and she felt that she had no option but to move in with the accused and work at the ballet studio -- 14 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 13 to fund her own lessons with the accused. The sexual relationship resumed. However, the complainant’s bulimia worsened, and her weight dropped to around thirty-five kilograms. The accused was concerned about being blamed for the complainant’s bulimia and told the complainant that she was no longer attractive to the accused. The sexual aspect of their relationship began to wane. The complainant moved into her own bedroom at the accused’s house. 51 The complainant auditioned for a position with the Queensland Ballet Company and was successful. She moved to Queensland and away from the accused. Whilst in Queensland and when she was around 20-21 years of age, she dated a male dancer and in the early stages of the relationship when they were alone together engaging in consensual sexual behaviour, the complainant told him that she had been abused by her female ballet teacher. 52 The accused was interviewed by Victoria Police in 2021 for a period of around four hours and denied the allegations. She said she found sexual contact between two women to be disgusting and distasteful. She did however admit to having sexual thoughts about the complainant when the complainant was an adult. The evidence 53 I now turn to examine the evidence in detail. Exhibits 54 The following exhibits were tendered during the trial: P1 – Plan of house at Euro Avenue, Eden Hills P2 – Plan of house at 9 Furner Street, Morphett Vale P3 – Photographs from the Europe Trip P4 – Newspaper Article P5 – Layout of the Ballet Studio P6 – Layout of Ballet Studio as Drawn by YC P7 – Newspaper Articles P8 – USB Containing record of interview of the accused on 12 August 2021 MFI-P8A – Transcript of record of interview (Edited with Redactions) P9 – Statement of Agreed Facts D10 – Statement of Agreed Fact and annexed hospital notes The complainant – SR 55 SR gave her evidence via AVL, and the court was closed. Her evidence was recorded by audio-visual means. I made orders for these arrangements to be in -- 15 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 14 place pursuant to s 13 EA. Pursuant to s 13 (7) EA, I direct myself that these arrangements do not permit me to draw any inference adverse to the accused and nor do they influence the weight to be given to SR’s evidence. 56 SR was born on 10 April 1970. She had one brother PK who was three years older, and they lived with her parents EK and PWK. The family lived in Morphett Vale when she was growing up. Her parents still live there. Her father was a diesel mechanic and worked for a company which sold industrial equipment. Her mother did not work.9 The house was on a corner block and had three bedrooms, a little dining room kitchen and lounge room. She and her brother had their own rooms.10 Overview of ballet career 57 Since the age of five, SR wanted to do ballet. She started lessons aged six. She had lessons at a ballet school in Morphett Vale until she was 12 years of age when she started masterclasses at Norwood Ballet Centre.11 It was there that she first met the accused. She was twelve years old at the time. She had private lessons with the accused and when SR learnt that the accused was opening her own school with more structure, she decided to move to the accused’s ballet school.12 58 SR had been studying Cecchitti but preferred the Royal Academy of Dance. She was 13 years old when the accused’s ballet school, the [redacted] School of Ballet and Dance, opened. It was located in Seaview Downs.13 59 SR said that dancing made her feel fantastic and she was reasonably good at it. She had aspirations for a career in ballet but did not have the perfect physique for it.14 The accused constantly told her that she would have to work twice as hard as anyone else. SR was asked if the accused was a good teacher from a technical point of view. She said: A I’d have to say no. Q Were there things that she was able to do for you to improve your dancing. A Yeah, but the way she did it wasn’t necessary. Q Taking out the way she did it, was she able to improve you as a dancer. A Yeah. Q Okay … 9 T 119. 10 T 120-121. 11 T 121. 12 T 122. 13 T 123-4. 14 T 125. -- 16 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 15 A I’m pretty sure I did the work. HER HONOUR Q [SR] why were you of the view that she’s not a good teacher. A Well I think being berated all the time, having somebody put their fingernail under your leg and say ‘I should sharpen this nail to get your leg higher’, whilst being in your face with a fag out of her moth, so every one she smoked, I smoked half, the way that nothing was ever good enough. There was no positive reinforcement, there was no ‘I’m sure we can get this’, it was just like ‘that’s not good enough, do it again. Do it again, do it again’. It’s demoralising and I don’t think you need to break a student to make them dance better. You want to encourage them so that they want to get better.15 60 SR studied at the accused’s ballet school until 1988 when she was 17 and went to New Zealand. She went to school but after finishing year 10 she left school to study ballet full time in 1986. She was in New Zealand with the National Ballet School for 11 months before returning to Adelaide. Whilst in New Zealand her parents rented her bedroom out to her brother’s friend without informing her and upon her return she had nowhere to live. Her parents decided they did not want to pay for her ballet any longer. The accused told SR she could live with the accused and teach classes.16 SR was asked whether she accepted the accused’s offer and she said: A I really didn’t want to but I don’t know, I was homeless so yeah.17 HER HONOUR Q You said that you didn’t really want to move in with [the accused] but it was either that or be homeless. A Well that’s how I thought. Q I see. Did you have any discussions with your parents about being able to move back home. A Not really. Mum and I didn’t really get on, so yeah, I think they saw this and in fact my dad told me that they had really enjoyed not having to run me anywhere so had decided – you know to and from classes – so had decided they weren’t going to do that anymore. So even if I had been able to move in there as I didn’t drive at that stage there is no way I could have gone and got to dancing.18 61 SR moved in with the accused and taught classes at the accused’s ballet school on Whitmore Square five days a week.19 The accused assisted SR to obtain Centrelink but the small amount she received was taken by the accused for room 15 T 126, 26-38; T 127, 1-13. 16 T 130-131. 17 T 131, 36-37. 18 T 132, 18-31. 19 T 132. -- 17 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 16 and board. SR obtained her driver’s licence when she was 19 and still living with the accused.20 62 In January 1991, when SR was 20 years old, she moved to Queensland. She had auditioned successfully for a position in the Queensland Ballet Company.21 She danced with the Queensland Ballet Company for just over four years until she injured her ankle, and it became too painful for her to continue.22 Her parents told her that she could live with them, and they drove up in their caravan and she followed them back to Adelaide in her car.23 She lived with her parents for three months but said that did not end well. She trained as a florist and then started teaching ballet at the age of 27.24 63 The only contact SR then had with the accused was when she went to her house with her father to pick up some videos of her when she was young. After this her contact with the accused was accidental. She saw her again in 2019.25 64 SR said she was aware that money was tight in her family in her early teenage years. Her parents told her that dancing was so expensive. The accused told her that she discounted SR’s fees.26 SR understood that her parents paid for her trip to New Zealand with the accused and for the accommodation and spending money on the trip to Europe. SR said she washed and vacuumed their cars to pay for the airfares. Her mother got a job picking mushrooms to help pay for the trip to New Zealand.27 65 SR described herself as ‘so naïve’ when aged 12 or 13. She was not fashion conscious and wore clothes her mother made. She was an anxious child and had been bullied in school, especially primary school. She asked to move schools, but her mother told her to ‘toughen up’. She had one friend in primary school and did not have a friendship group at high school.28 SR had good friends in ballet, but they were at the old school. By the time she went to the accused’s ballet school, she was not really friendly with fellow students YC or AE as they were two years younger than her, and they were rivals for the accused’s attention or in exams.29 66 SR said she was never particularly close to her mother and her father was away a lot. She got along with her father but when she hit puberty his relationship with her changed.30 SR said that she did not talk with her parents about sexual education and she never had sex education in primary school and in year 9 in high 20 T 133. 21 T 133. 22 T 134. 23 T 134. 24 T 134-135. 25 T 136. 26 T 136-137. 27 T 139. 28 T 140. 29 T 141. 30 T 142 -143. -- 18 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 17 school ‘there might have been something, but Mum never discussed it with me.31 And as I didn’t start menstruating until I was 14, that was a big shock because I still didn’t know anything’. She said she was scared of her mother and could not have talked to her ‘about anything’.32 67 When SR started at the accused’s ballet school, she was doing ten, possibly more, lessons a week. There were classes on Saturdays and private lessons were always on Sundays.33 She was at ballet school three or four times a week plus both days on the weekend. Her mother usually took her to ballet and picked her up. Her parents told her they hated taking her to ballet. On some occasions, the accused dropped her home after dropping off other students first.34 68 During her period of tuition with the accused, SR was given gifts. She said it started off with motivational books, cards, stuffed toys but then progressed to a nine-carat gold necklace for her thirteenth birthday. She was also bought streetwear and tracksuits. The reasons offered for the gifts initially were a reward for doing well or occasion gifts (birthdays, Christmas) but in her later teenage years she said, ‘it ended up being something more sinister’. SR said the gifts made her feel special and she thought the accused was a kind person. 35 SR said her parents were present when the gifts were given to her.36 First occasion of sexual touching 69 When SR was around 12 ½ years old the accused took her to the Festival Theatre to see the Australian Ballet perform. The accused told SR’s mother that the performance would finish too late to drop her home and said SR could stay the night with her. Her mother told the accused that SR would not do that. SR explained that she had a lot of anxiety as a child and had been bullied and this led to her not being able to sleep over at her friends’ houses.37 The accused told SR that if she did not sleep over, she would probably not take her to the ballet.38 70 SR went to the ballet at the Festival Theatre with the accused and then went back to her house on Hutt Street.39 SR became anxious and told the accused she wanted to go home. The accused told her to have a spa bath and it might make her feel better.40 The accused ran the bath and then told SR to go in and have a bath. After she got in the bath the bubbles started to grow and she was worried that she would flood the bathroom. The bath was at least half a metre deep but was not full of water. She called out to the accused who then came in. The accused then scooped the bubbles out and put them in the sink. In the process of doing so 31 T 143. 32 T 143, 13-16, 24-25. 33 T 144. 34 T 144. 35 T 145-146, 36 T 147. 37 T 147-148. 38 T 150. 39 T 149. 40 T 150. -- 19 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 18 multiple times, the accused brushed her five or six times from the top of her hip bone, alongside where her vagina was and down to her thigh. The accused then told her to relax, and it would be fine. SR got straight out.41 71 SR put on her pyjamas and told the accused she wanted to go home. The accused said that if she went home, she would prove her mother right. This made SR indignant, and she thought to herself ‘Bugger, all right, I’ll stay’. She went upstairs and asked the accused where she was sleeping and where the spare room was. The accused said she could sleep with her. SR told her she could not do that, and she wanted to go home. The accused then told her not to worry about it and that she could sleep on the lounge. SR again told the accused she wanted to go home, and the accused said if she stayed she could have her quilt. SR only had blankets at home. SR thought to herself, “Wow. Okay, all right’ and then slept on the couch with the quilt on. Upon waking in the morning, she peered into the accused’s bedroom and saw she had jumpers on and a dressing gown with no blankets. When SR asked her where her blankets were, the accused told her she did not have any and SR had her quilt. It then dawned on SR that there was never going to be a spare bed.42 72 SR was asked to describe the accused’s relationship with her mother at the time she went to see the ballet at the Festival Theatre. She said: She was like my mum’s best friend. Because, like, Mum didn’t have a lot of best friends. She had some good friends who were pretty much the wives of Dad’s friends or cousins or something like that. She wasn’t a big friendship group person. But [the accused] had ended up being really good friends, so when she would drop me home from ballet or if we were having a barbeque, Mum would invite her. So when I was a little bit more into the studio, she started, my mum, started inviting [the accused] over for dinner, and they would watch movies together. I’d go to bed, and she’d be watching – I remember one of them was an Officer and a Gentleman, that sort of thing, together. And Mum found that great because Mum suddenly had a new best friend.43 73 When SR was 13 ½ years old these interactions abruptly stopped. The accused continued to come into the house after dropping her off and have a coffee, but the accused declined invitations when her mother extended them to her, saying she was too busy.44 74 SR said the accused did not live on Hutt Street for very long; she rented a place at Eden Hills. Later she lived in Clarence Park and that was the address in which SR lived upon her return from New Zealand.45 41 T 151-153. 42 T 153-154. 43 T 155, 5-18. 44 T 155-156. 45 T 156-157. -- 20 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 19 Sleepover at the ballet studio 75 In the first year that the accused’s ballet school opened, there was a celebratory sleepover in the studio. AE, YC, MBB and LB went as did lots of children. SR said there would have been well in excess of 25 students of all ages. They had dinner and a disco at the studio, and everyone brought sleeping bags to sleep in. The accused was drinking scotch out of a coffee cup. She was ‘a bit slurry, a bit jolly’. When it was time to go to sleep the accused told SR to sleep next to her, on her left. The zip to SR’s sleeping bag was on the side facing the accused and she left it open in anticipation of needing to go to the toilet during the night.46 76 The toilet light was left on but in the area where SR was sleeping it was dark. Once she was in her sleeping bag, she heard a little bit of giggling and chatting and then it went quiet. SR started to drop off to sleep when she noticed that the accused had put her hands in through the zip and travelled down and then up her nightie and into her pants. SR froze and then pushed the accused’s hand away and moved over. The accused’s hand ‘went again’. SR then got up and went to the toilet and sat on it thinking47: ‘Oh my god what have I done wrong. She’s drunk. This has to be because she’s drunk. Nobody does this’ and I reckon I was in that toilet for – there wasn’t a clock – but it could have easily been 45 minutes and I thought ‘Okay, I’m calm enough now. I’ll go back to bed’.48 77 SR returned to her sleeping bag and the accused’s hand went up under her nightie and into her pants. SR got straight up and went back to the toilet and sat there again. She again thought to herself, ‘what have I done wrong’. When she finally returned, she swapped over her sleeping bag, so the zip was facing the other side and she faced that way. There was no further touching by the accused. SR said that when the accused’s hand went into her pants ‘she put it down into my vagina and was rubbing around the clitoris area…she was absolutely touching my vagina skin to skin down in my undies’.49 SR explained that on each occasion the accused was touching the outside of her vagina in between the labia and was rubbing her clitoris with two fingers in a circular motion.50 78 SR said that her reaction was to freeze, and she felt as if she could not move: …I mean, I’d had no sex education till then and I couldn’t believe this was happening from somebody I looked up to, and I thought – honestly, I thought I’d done something wrong that she was drunk and doing that. I immediately blamed myself, gosh, I’ve done something wrong, I’ve acted the wrong way or maybe I was too nice or – I didn’t know.51 46 T 159-162. 47 T 162. 48 T 162, 37-38; T 163, 1-4. 49 T 163, 50 T 164. 51 T 164, 24-30. -- 21 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 20 79 SR eventually went to sleep. The next day she was in the kitchen area to make a cup of coffee, and the accused came in and leaned over and said, ‘You felt nice’. SR pulled back and said, ‘I thought you were drunk?’ The accused said, ‘nope’ and SR responded ‘oh my god. I can’t believe that’. The accused then told her, ‘You can’t tell anyone, because after all, you’re you and I’m me. No-one’s going to believe you’.52 SR was asked what she thought when the accused said this: A I thought why would I tell anyone anyway? If I told mum, who I couldn’t talk to anyway, she’d stop me dancing, and how embarrassing. Mum probably wouldn’t believe me anyway. Q What do you mean, ‘how embarrassing’. A Well, how I didn’t have words for my own body parts at that stage, how would I then say to my mum, ‘oh by the way, [the accused] just put her hands down my pants and molested my vagina’. I mean, these weren’t words I used or even perhaps knew how to say. I didn’t have a conversation for that. HER HONOUR Q [SR] at that age did you have any words that you or members of your family used for private body parts. A No. It literally was never mentioned. We never talked about anything. It wasn’t even the pet names like a willy or a – you know anything. There was no conversations about sexuality at all. Q And amongst friends that you had at the time. A By that stage I didn’t have any friends. I was pretty well isolated.53 Sleepovers at the accused’s house. 80 SR explained how she came to sleep over at the accused’s house after this incident. Her brother was involved in motorcross at Kadina. Her father would also ride. She said: …and when I was really young, I used to have the great pleasure of having to go and watch them go round this great big track. It took all day, plus the travel. You would sit in the car in the freezing cold and watch bikes go around, bored out of your brain, and it would take pretty much the whole weekend. So as it was coming up to that sort of season where the motorbike racing would start again, I must’ve been complaining about having to go – I know I used to complain about that a lot – and [the accused] said to my mum that she can stay at my place if you want, that way she doesn’t miss out on her dancing, which seemed like a great thing for mum and dad, and for me on one side of it I was really pleased because I still got to go to dancing on Saturdays and have my private lessons, but then the other side was a worry.54 81 SR said her mother was quite happy with this arrangement because she did not have SR sitting behind her in the car the whole time whinging about how bored 52 T 164-165. 53 T 165, 18-28, 30-38, T 166, 1. 54 T 166, 16-31. -- 22 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 21 she was. After this, she slept over at the accused’s home every second weekend. She slept over on Friday and Saturday night and would go home on Sunday. She was 13 ½ years old when the sleepovers started.55 82 When motorcross season, (which lasted for two to three months over winter) ended, SR continued to sleep over at the accused’s house. SR said this was because her mother and father hated having to drop her off and pick her up and so they were quite happy to opt out of that. Her parents told her they were glad they did not have to do any more running around.56 83 SR’s parents once went to the accused’s home in Eden Hills. SR was there at the time because she had slept over. The accused gave her parents a galah named Charlie.57 A plan of the house at Eden Hills was tendered: Exhibit P1. The first time SR went to the accused’s home in Eden Hills it was for a sleep over. There had not been any prior discussion about where she would sleep. There was a second bedroom in the house, but it was set up as a dining room. SR slept in the accused’s bedroom when she stayed the night.58 84 On the first occasion that SR went to the accused’s house for a sleepover, she asked the accused if she was going to be sleeping on the lounge and the accused said, ‘no you’ll have to sleep with me, or we can’t do sleepovers’. SR did not respond because ‘that would have meant that I couldn’t have danced’. The first sleepover was about six months after the sleepover at Hutt Street. It was in May or June when motorcross started.59 85 SR had her nightie on and got into bed but was on the edge. The accused asked her to come over and give her a cuddle, so she did. The accused was naked. The lights were off. SR did not think there was anything wrong with a hug and the accused pulled her around to face her and they cuddled. The accused then rolled onto her back and told SR that SR could make her happy and she would show her how. The accused grabbed her right hand and placed it on the accused’s vagina. The accused told her how much she loved watching SR dance and that she thought she could have a career, but she needed really strong legs. The accused brushed her hand down her thighs. The accused then guided her hand around and told SR she could put a finger inside. SR did this.60 86 The accused guided SR’s hand to her clitoris and told her, ‘if you circle around, you can have what is called an orgasm’.61 SR did not know what an orgasm was. SR was asked what she was thinking at this time: 55 T 167. 56 T 167-8. 57 T 168. 58 T 169-171. 59 T 172-173. 60 T 174-175. 61 T 176, 5-7. -- 23 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 22 Oh my god, I hated myself. I was like ‘What is going on, this is so wrong’. I knew what she was doing was wrong, I felt kind of trapped by it. I didn’t want her to get angry because she’s not nice when she’s angry. And honestly, I think my brain was just going 100 miles an hour and I was thinking, ‘It will be over soon’.62 87 The accused told SR she could do the same to her, but SR said no. The accused told her to keep going on her clitoris and her breath changed and she shuddered, and SR presumed this was an orgasm. SR got up and went to the toilet and ‘felt like the dirtiest most disgusting person alive’63 and then went back to bed and slept.64 Later in evidence, SR said that the first time she ever had to massage the accused, she told her that when her breathing changed as she shuddered, this was an orgasm. At a later stage, the accused offered to give SR an orgasm, but she said no.65 88 SR said that what happened was ‘not normal’ and that: …normal is male and female when I grew up…that’s the way I’d been brought up, that a relationship was between a man and a woman, obviously I was way too young for that, so that was another complication about what I thought, was, ‘Why am I having to do this at this age?’ I didn’t understand what was going on and what I was doing wrong to have this happen.66 89 Every time SR slept over at the accused’s house the same sexual contact would occur. The sleepovers continued until she went to New Zealand to go to ballet school for 11 months.67 The sexual contact would start with the accused touching her, but SR used to clench her backside and squeeze her legs together. This was preceded by the accused saying, ‘do you know I love you’ and ‘I can make you feel good’.68 The accused would rub SR’s clitoris and try to get into her vagina but was not able to.69 There were occasions when the accused touched her inside her vagina but because she was clenching it could not go in very far.70 The accused would then say ‘well, let’s do me’.71 Things changed when oral sex was introduced and ‘she just liked to cut to the chase with her receiving that’.72 The accused would not touch SR but just wanted oral sex.73 90 The second time she slept over, the accused said, ‘there is such a thing as oral sex’ and asked SR if she had heard of it. 74 SR said she had not heard of sex, let alone oral sex so she said ‘no’.75 The accused gave a brief summary of what that 62 T 176, 15-20. 63 T 181, 28-34. 64 T 181. 65 T 191. 66 T 181, 38; T 182, 8-14. 67 T 187. 68 T 192. 69 T 192. 70 T 192. 71 T 188, 15. 72 T 188, 28-29. 73 T 188. 74 T 188, 38; T 189, 1. 75 T 189, 2-11. -- 24 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 23 would entail and SR said no. The accused ‘dropped it then and just the manual touching her happened’. The accused brought it up repeatedly and SR would have the same reaction. Later in the year, on a day when there was a thunderstorm and lightning, and the accused was in a ‘feral mood’ the accused told her the only way she would make her really happy was if she gave her oral sex.76 SR explained: So I laid down and she told me to put my head between her legs whilst telling me how much she loved me, like that would somehow make it better. And then she instructed me on how to lick her clitoris. It was probably the single most degrading thing I’ve ever had to do. The taste and smell I don’t think I’ll ever forget. After she have an orgasm she grabbed my face and there’s still muck – muck all over my face and she grabs my head and she says, ‘One of these days you’re gonna hate me’, and I’m shaking, I’m ‘No, no’. I got up and I went to the bathroom and couldn’t scrub my face enough. If I had bleach, there I probably would have swallowed bleach. That was the first time.77 91 There were other occasions of oral sex because ‘once she found that out she was hooked’. During oral sex the accused would give SR one of her pep talks and tell her what she could work on when she was dancing and how much she loved her.78 Oral sex occurred almost every time she slept over at the accused’s house.79 92 SR described the accused as one of the nastiest people she had come across. The accused ‘degraded’ SR and reduced her to nothing. She had no self-esteem left. She told SR that unless SR did it the way she wanted there was no way SR would be a dancer. Being a dancer was all SR ever wanted. SR thought the accused was telling her that unless she gave her oral sex, she would never be a dancer.80 93 SR was asked why the sexual contact continued: Because it was always held against me that if I didn’t do what she said I wouldn’t be able to learn ballet from her and she made it very clear that nobody else would want to teach me because my body wasn’t right for dancing… … All I ever wanted to do was dance. I probably would have walked over hot coals if it meant that. There was a part of me that thought that I could shut off all of that horrible, if it meant that the goal at the end of it was dance, that I could put up with that if it meant I could get to the end of dance.81 94 There were occasions when SR could not allow herself to like what the accused was doing but she felt as if some part of her body did like it.82 She could not handle this and to avoid it, would give the accused oral sex.83 SR never talked 76 T 189-190. 77 T 190, 13-25. 78 T 190. 79 T 191. 80 T 191. 81 T 194, 28-32; T 6-11. 82 T 193, 7-9. 83 T 193. -- 25 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 24 to the accused about the sexual contact.84 SR would not allow the accused to perform oral sex on her. She would say, ‘No I’ll do it on you’.85 95 The sexual contact always occurred in the bedroom but there was one occasion when SR was having a shower and the accused touched her sexually: …I just had a head full of shampoo and the water was all over my hair and the next thing I knew there was a finger up inside of me and I turned around it was her, she’s naked, she jumped in behind me, well I quickly rinsed off my hair and got out…86 96 SR started menstruating when she was 14. She did not know what was happening because her mother had not told her about periods. She initially thought she was dying but her mother said, ‘no it’s all right you’re a woman now’. Her mother gave her a tampon and told her it went up inside. SR said that she could not do that because the accused had ‘been poking’ her fingers around in there before. She told her mother ‘I can’t do this’ and was then given a pad. The accused told her she should be using a tampon because pads were visible in ballet class. The accused told her she could help her.87 One weekend, the accused told her she would show her how to use a tampon. SR explained what happened next: …she said, ‘Come in the bedroom’ so I go in there and there’s a soft toy rabbit on the bed…and there’s a towel laying down on the bed, and I’m like ‘What are we doing’. She’s like ‘I’ll help you use one’ and I said ‘Have you got an applicator’ and she goes, ‘No, no ,no I’ll just use my finger’. I was like, what, and she goes ‘just lay down’ so I had to take my pants off, I had to lay down with my legs out like a frog, like you do when you have a pap smear, for all the ladies in the audience, and then she took, it was a mini tampon because I think it was kind of small, and she spent an incredibly long amount of time with her head down the business end inching this painfully tight area of me with this tampon up inside.88 97 The accused told her that she would not feel the tampon when it was up there, but SR told her. Eventually the accused pulled out the tampon and it was bent. She got another tampon and despite SR telling her not to, the accused inserted it and told her she would be right from then on. SR then went to the toilet and pulled it out and it was bent.89 Sexual contact in SR’s home 98 When the accused dropped her home, she always came in for a coffee. It was SR’s bedtime, and her father would come into her bedroom and wind up her clock and say goodnight. Her mother would yell ‘goodnight’ from the lounge room.90 Her parents were always home. The accused would always come in and tuck her 84 T 194. 85 T 195, 18. 86 T 196, 2-7. 87 T 196. 88 T 197, 4-20. 89 T 197-198. 90 T 199. -- 26 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 25 in. Initially, the accused would come in for about fifteen minutes and sit on her bed and give her a pep talk: They were always about the same, about what you can do to be a dancer and it was always around my ballet – except her hands used to go under the bed covers and into my knickers. My body was frozen. Again, I was squeezing my backside until it just about burst and my eyes would be glued on my open bedroom door. So, in the beginning, every time she would come up, it would be maybe 15 minutes. But then it started getting longer. So, the touching of me went on longer. I was so shit – excuse me, very scared that my parents would come up. You know, they never came up. By the – later on, she would’ve been in my room 45 minutes to an hour. What did they think was happening?91 99 SR said the accused would tell her how much she loved her and how talented she was while she was rubbing her clitoris. SR said her clitoris would get aroused, much to her shame. She was terrified she would get caught, because she would get the blame. If she did get caught, that would end the cycle she was in but would also mean the end of dancing.92 100 A plan of SR’s family home in Morphett Vale was tendered: Exhibit P2. SR’s room was immediately adjacent to her brother’s room.93 The New Zealand holiday 101 At the end of 1984 or early 1985, when SR was 15 years old, the accused told SR she wanted her to audition for the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company. At the time SR did not know that ‘no 14-year-olds would ever do that’ and neither did her parents. SR’s mother told her that she paid for SR’s airfare and had loaned money to the accused for her airfare.94 102 For the first week of the trip to New Zealand, they stayed with the accused’s parents. They slept in the spare room that had two single beds. One night the accused told SR to get into bed with her and SR touched her vagina until she had an orgasm. Whilst staying with the accused’s parents in Napier, they went sightseeing. In the second week they stayed at different Holiday Inn Motels in Rotorua, Taupo and Palmerston. Sexual contact of the same type occurred at almost all of these locations. It was not until the last day that she went to a ballet class. As they arrived late, she had not warmed up and she started crying and said she would not do the class and the accused got angry. The accused pushed her through the door in front of all of ‘these professionals’ and SR did the rest of the class, but she spent most of it snivelling. She felt embarrassed and mortified.95 Full-time ballet school 103 SR left school to commence ballet full time after completing year 10 and when she was 15 turning 16. This was at the accused’s suggestion or instigation. 91 T 200, 18-30. 92 T 201. 93 T 204. 94 T 205. 95 T 207-208. -- 27 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 26 Her mother was very negative about the idea.96 Up until that time she had been enjoying going to school but did not have a great friendship group. Her grades were B+ and A-. SR loved the idea of studying ballet full time because ‘the more ballet I could do the better’. SR said when she went full time, she would catch the bus down and the accused would pick her up on the way through and they would go to the studio and start an exam class around 9am and continue through for 12 hours. However, in the morning after a class, the accused would take her shopping at the Marion Shopping Centre.97 The trip to Europe 104 The accused had planned classes for SR at the Royal Danish Ballet School, the Royal Swedish Ballet School and the Royal Norwegian Ballet School. Two other girls went on this trip, YC and AP (nee AE). They were 14 years old, and SR was 16. The trip was over Christmas and lasted 6 weeks. They travelled to London first for a week of sightseeing and then spent a week in each of the three countries.98 105 AP and YC shared a hotel room. SR and the accused shared a hotel room. SR asked if she could share with the other girls and the accused said no. There was sexual contact during the trip, but not every time, and it was mainly SR touching the accused. There were occasions of oral sex. YC asked if she wanted to swap rooms, but SR did not think she could do that to her.99 Photographs from this trip showing SR, AP, YC and the accused were tendered: Exhibit P3. Grandparent’s house 106 SR’s grandparents would travel each year in a caravan to Hervey Bay, Queensland and stay for 3 or 4 months from May to September. When the accused’s lease at Eden Hills expired, she offered to look after their house while they were away, and they agreed. SR stayed at her grandparents’ house with the accused every second weekend. Each occasion she stayed over, she performed oral sex on the accused in her grandparents’ bed. SR could not recall any specific occasion when the accused touched her sexually, but SR touched the accused with her hand more than once. All she could recall about those occasions was that it seemed to take so long. Each sexual act occurred at nighttime. After her grandparents returned, the accused moved into another house two months before SR moved to New Zealand for 11 months. SR did not go to that house during those two months.100 Other ballet schools 107 SR took exams whilst she studied ballet with the accused. The last exam she did was an advanced one called the Solo Seal. It took her two years of preparation 96 T 208-209. 97 T 210-211. 98 T 212-213. 99 T 214. 100 T 218-221. -- 28 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 27 to be ready to take the exam. The accused decided when she would take it.101 SR knew of other girls at other ballet schools who had taken this exam. SR was asked how many other ballet schools there were in Adelaide when she was being taught by the accused and she said: There’s a lot. Predominantly, the best ones were Sheila Lang, Terry Simpson and Susan Taylor. Now, they all three of those had full-time programs at their school, but they were all centrally located right in the city, and my parents just said, ‘Nah’. That and they were obviously a lot more expensive – got probably a better outcome, but yeah, that much of a distance wasn’t something my parents were going to do.102 108 SR was asked if she ever thought about going to another ballet school in the lead-up to going to New Zealand: Absolutely, like, a lot. And there were times that I mentioned it to [the accused] and said that maybe I should go and I could do some classes somewhere else as well. And that was categorically closed down. I was then guilt-tripped, you know, ‘Nobody’s going to look at you. You go there, you’re going to be a no-one’. It just wasn’t worth bringing it up after a while because there was a lot of verbal abuse involved. And you really can only keep bashing your head against a brick wall for so long before you realise your head is hurting.103 Physical contact during ballet lessons and comments on appearance 109 SR said physical contact in a dance class was not uncommon and touching a student to physically correct a stance would occur. However, the accused would come in ‘and just grab you and be right in your face and sort of grab your body, and it’s not necessary to teach because in dance you’ve got to feel your body in those positions’.104 The accused did not physically correct other students.105 110 At the end of the last class on a Monday night, the accused would weigh each student. The accused had cards with the name and weight of each student and if a student weighed more the following week, they would be berated. SR recalled being told she was fat because she had put on four pounds. SR understood that in the 1980’s the ideal ballerina shape was a shorter body, longer legs, nice square shoulders, a long neck and thin. SR then gave this evidence: HER HONOUR Q [SR], was the topic of weight and being thin something confined to your teaching by [the accused] or did you encounter that in other ballet schools in which you were involved. A Nowhere else.106 HER HONOUR 101 T 221-222. 102 T 223, 30-37. 103 T 224, 22-32. 104 T 226. 105 T 227. 106 T 228, 9-13. -- 29 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 28 Q …Is it your evidence that in no other ballet school in which you had participated or any other lessons you had with any other ballet teachers, there was never any weighing of you or other students. A No. No other place that I had been to full-time or anything, because the amount of exercise you do, dancers need to be strong. You are what you eat, for strength.107 111 SR said being weighed was demoralising and embarrassing.108 112 SR said the accused went through a stage of thinking that SR would look more striking on stage with black hair. One weekend the accused appeared with a hair dye box and said she was going to do her hair. SR hated it.109 The accused also shaved SR’s legs, something she was not allowed to do at home. SR was happy to have shaved legs.110 113 The accused bought SR different tracksuits which were better quality than the clothes she used to wear. Often the clothes the accused selected for SR were similar to the accused’s clothes and SR found this embarrassing. She did not tell the accused this because the accused scared her. The accused was very strong and would tell stories which always had an element of menace or violence to them, and SR came to believe that there was a possibility of violence.111 114 SR said the accused liked to be the ‘person sitting on the throne’ at ballet school: We had to idolise her. When we left the studio at night – so if I was being – was being picked up by my dad or – which wasn’t very often, but if I did, we all had to go and give her a kiss on the cheek before we left. Now I observed at least two other girls having to do the same thing. When I would perform on stage, you, at the end of a performance you normally do a curtsy to your audience and you leave the stage. She would stand in the wings…and I was required to then turn to her in the wings and do a thank you rolling curtsy to her…112 115 SR said she did not want to kiss the accused on the cheek, but she did it because she did everything she was told. The curtsy was embarrassing because nobody else did it. SR was too scared to tell the accused she did not want to do these things. She saw the accused thump furniture and that sort of thing. Her face would change, and she did not like that change. 113 Injuries 116 At one point, SR fell during ballet and injured her spine. She was in a lot of pain and could barely move. The accused took her to see a chiropractor a couple of times a week for a few weeks. The treatment was excruciatingly painful. Her 107 T 234, 2-9. 108 T 229. 109 T 230. 110 T 231-232. 111 T 233. 112 T 237, 16-27. 113 T 238. -- 30 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 29 parents knew she was seeing a chiropractor and gave her their health insurance card and cash.114 Accused’s treatment of other students 117 SR said the accused was less interested and invested in some of the other students. The accused went through the motions with the other students. SR said she was definitely up the top of the hierarchy; she was the oldest and the most proficient. SR saw the accused relentlessly picking on other children until they cried. This would happen again and again until the children left the school. Even though she felt guilty, SR did not intervene because she was glad it was not her.115 Whenever SR became defiant in class because she thought the accused was being nasty the accused would say, ‘No one’s going to make you into anyone; you have to do what I say; this is what we do; and no one’s going to believe you’. This was pretty regular.116 No one else was present when this was said.117 118 The accused would ‘get a bit brazen in front of people’. She had nicknames for body parts; a vagina was a ‘hoo’ and breasts were ‘zoomies’. She first used these nicknames and explained their meaning at her house in Eden Hills. She would then use these nicknames in class as a taunt to SR.118 119 A newspaper article featuring YC and SR when she was 14 years old was tendered: Exhibit P 4. The article was arranged by the accused.119 A plan of the layout of the accused’s ballet studio was tendered: Exhibit P5. SR’s time at the New Zealand ballet school 120 The accused completed the paperwork which qualified SR for a part- scholarship to attend the New Zealand Ballet School.120 SR then went to New Zealand in 1988 when she was 17 years of age and turned 18 whilst there. She had never lived away from her family. She lived in hostel accommodation with a communal kitchen. She was responsible for her own meals. SR had been very conscious of what she ate when she was at the accused’s ballet school because she was told not to put on weight. When she was in New Zealand it was a ‘free-for- all’ and she rapidly put on weight.121 121 SR’s parents visited her in the middle of the year. The accused also visited once around April. She told SR she was fat and no matter how she did it, she had to lose weight. The accused insisted on staying in SR’s room despite that fact that this was not allowed. SR slept on the floor but there was still sexual contact; the accused had an orgasm and was also touching SR. She told SR that if she did not 114 T 234-237. 115 T 240. 116 T 241. 117 T 243. 118 T 242-243. 119 T 245. 120 T 224, 293. 121 T 248-250. -- 31 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 30 lose weight her dreams of dancing would be gone.122 When the accused left, she gave her a set of scales, a bottle of diet pills, and a diet menu. She tried to stick to the diet but found it difficult. She weighed herself on the scales and weighed 9 stone which was 2 stone heavier than she had been when she left for New Zealand. She was 5’4” at the time.123 122 SR said she wanted to lose weight because she knew that fat ballerinas were not going to get a job. SR had to call the accused twice a week to tell her what she weighed and how much weight she had lost. This made her feel like rubbish. When asked why SR kept in contact with the accused, she said, ‘I question I just didn’t know better. That’s all I knew’.124 If she had not called the accused, the accused would have called her and that happened once and one of the girls told her that the accused should not be telephoning her.125 123 SR realised she did not know how to eat properly, and she started looking at what the other students ate and she cut out sugar. However, SR contracted a virus later in the year which made her vomit for days. She lost weight. SR then realised she could have the best of both worlds and became bulimic. The other dancers looked like they had a balanced diet and did not talk about their weight or weight issues.126 Return from New Zealand – moving in with the accused 124 By the time SR returned to Australia she was ‘pretty stoked’ because she was down to seven stone and the accused was picking her up from the airport so she would see how much weight she lost. When the accused saw her, she squeezed SR’s bottom and told her ‘Not bad. Still a bit more to go’. SR felt deflated.127 125 Upon her return from New Zealand SR moved in with the accused and their sexual relationship resumed with the same forms of sexual contact. SR slept in the accused’s bed. She was not allowed to sleep in the spare room. SR’s weight dropped to 5 ½ stone and the accused told her she was too bony and unattractive. The accused arranged for SR to see an eating disorder therapist, but SR felt as if she was listening to the therapist’s problems and not her own.128 Her parents organised to pay for an inpatient program at the Blackwood hospital but that meant she was not allowed to dance. The accused spoke to the organisers of the program and told them that SR could not be kept away from dance that long. The accused then organised for SR to participate in the program in the morning and catch a bus into town to undertake classes and then a bus back to Blackwood hospital. Exercise 122 T 251. 123 T 252-253. 124 T 253. 125 T 254. 126 T 254-255. 127 T 255-256. 128 T 258-259, 261. -- 32 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 31 was not part of the program so after a week SR was told the program was not right for her and her time there finished.129 126 SR said her mother was furious when she found out she had bulimia. The accused was very upset, but SR said: …my bulimia ended up serving a purpose, and I know that sounds ridiculous to people who haven’t been through this, but she left me alone sexually because she found me unattractive, and she was scared I was going to die.130 127 About halfway through the first year after her return from New Zealand, SR had a virus and was quite sick. SR asked the accused if she could sleep in the spare room at the Clarence Park home and the accused said yes because she did not want to catch the virus. After this, the accused tried to encourage her to return to her bedroom, but she said no.131 SR said, ‘to keep up with my ability to stay out of that bedroom, I just got thinner.’132 128 After a ballet class one day, the accused told SR she was taking her to hospital. They drove to the Flinders Medical Centre and during the journey the accused told SR that she had to say that the eating disorder was totally her fault, and that the accused did not want her to be like that.133 129 SR could not recall the last time there was any sexual activity with the accused but estimated she was 19 ½ or 20 years old.134 Upon arriving at the Flinders Medical Centre, she weighed five and a half stone and was hypoglycaemic. She was put on a drip. She heard the doctor say to the accused ‘she’s in a very bad way’ and the accused responded, ‘well she’s a very talented dancer and they need to be thin’. The accused told the doctor that SR had mental problems and that she was caring for her. SR did not have any further conversation with the doctor and after blood tests and other procedures, she was released the next day.135 Queensland Ballet 130 SR passed an exam called a Solo Seal when she was 19 years old. She was the first person in Adelaide to pass the exam in 7 years. As a result, the accused let the media know and SR was asked to appear on the Derryn Hinch show and also A Touch of Elegance.136 Following this media attention, an anonymous donor gave SR a cheque in the sum of $2000 to help progress SR’s career.137 At this time, there was one position being advertised for a female dancer at the Queensland Ballet Company. The auditions were being held in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane but 129 T 261-262. 130 T 260, 7-10. 131 T 260. 132 T 262, 33-34. 133 T 263. 134 T 263. 135 T 263-264. 136 T264. 137 T 265, -- 33 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 32 not Adelaide. SR told the accused she wanted to audition but the accused told her to wait until later when they come to Adelaide. Despite SR telling the accused again that they were not auditioning in Adelaide, the accused told her to wait. SR then booked a flight to Melbourne and attended the audition. When SR returned, the accused was very upset that she had gone to the audition. The artistic director, Harold Collins told SR that he would call her on the Monday morning to let her know but that he was 99% sure that he wanted her. On the Monday morning, he called and said, ‘Welcome to Queensland Ballet’. SR said they were the most wonderful minutes of her life.138 When she auditioned for Queensland Ballet Company, she weighed around 6 stone. Nothing was said to her about her weight or about how thin she was, and SR said she fitted what the company was looking for in a body type.139 131 SR left for Queensland in mid-January 1991. She knew one of the dancers, [SW], whom she had met the year before when the Queensland Ballet Company came to Adelaide to perform.140 SR said she had to learn to be around people her age and how to eat properly. 141 Whilst in Queensland, the accused often rang SR and she once spoke to her about the fact that the company was coming to South Australia. When the company toured, they performed in Adelaide and SR saw the accused in the audience. When she returned to Queensland, SR had no further contact with the accused; she changed her phone number and asked the front office not to put calls from the accused through to her. She wanted nothing more to do with her:142 The goal that I had put up with all of that for to reach was now here and I was going to take that and I was going to run with it. I had a new life. HER HONOUR Q Do you credit [the accused] in any way with your success as a ballet dancer. A I think technically I improved under her but a lot of people improve under a lot of teachers, they just don’t have to go through what I did.143 132 SR’s career with Queensland Ballet came to an end just before she turned 25 years of age due to an injury.144 Initial complaint 133 SR formed a friendship with SW, and this became romantic. One night when she was 20 years old SW was kissing her. SR said she was terrified because she thought she was possibly a lesbian. SR explained what happened next: 138 T 265-266. 139 T 268. 140 T 266. 141 T 268. 142 T 272. 143 T 273, 8-17. 144 T 273. -- 34 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 33 So anyway, I told [SW], I sort of put the brakes on for a minute and said ‘I’ve got to tell you something’ because I was really hoping there might be that understanding of maybe we can slow this down. Anyway, so I told him that I had been abused, that I wasn’t feeling like I could just go bang straight into it and being the – I think he’s a couple of years older than me – being the young silly male that he was at the time he basically goes ‘okay see you later’ and it was a very strange time for a little while at the company because there was suddenly a thing between us.145 134 SR said she told SW she ‘was abused for eight years’ but was not sure if she told him, it was her ballet teacher.146 SR said she had not told anyone before that because she thought she had done something wrong all the time, ‘given off the wrong vibes like maybe I gave off lesbian vibe…I just blamed me’.147 Episiotomy scar 135 SR said that when she was performing oral sex on the accused, she noticed an inch long scar on her vagina. It was a straight line that went from the end of the vaginal opening outwards. Later in life she realised this was an episiotomy scar, because she had one.148 Cross-examination 136 SR gave a statement to Victoria Police dated 1 July 2020, an affidavit to SAPOL on 27 August 2022 and two further affidavits to SAPOL on 13 January 2025. SR read over her 2020 and 2022 statements on 8 January 2025 and met with the prosecutor and police officer; during that meeting SR was given the opportunity to correct anything that may have been wrong in her earlier statements. One correction she made was to a description of an area in her house being ‘downstairs’.149 SR was given the opportunity to read each of her statements before she signed them, but she said: I have to say that sometimes when I read things, I do have a problem with some words jumping around. So I have a bit of a problem with that. So I do read them, but they jumble a bit. I wear glasses, but it’s – I don’t know why it does it.150 137 SR agreed that she was careful to ensure that she was as accurate as she could be. She said there were a couple of problems with the first statement because it took her eight hours over two days and to excuse her if she ‘got a couple of words wrong’. She agreed if there were words that were wrong, she had an opportunity to fix them up in her more recent statements.151 138 SR agreed that positions in ballet companies in Australia were highly competitive. When she auditioned for Queensland Ballet, there were 80 people in 145 T 269, 21-32. 146 T 270. 147 T 270-271. 148 T 273-274. 149 T 275-276. 150 T 278, 6-10. 151 T 278. -- 35 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 34 one of the three auditions.152 SR was a soloist and performed principal roles in Queensland Ballet; a principal is the highest level of performer.153 139 SR said that there were four top tier ballet schools in Adelaide when she was a teenager and the accused’s school was the next tier down.154 140 SR agreed that in her 2020 statement she told police that she did not let a man touch her until she was 33. However, she explained that she meant that she did not let a man perform oral sex on her until she was 33.155 She was married and had her first child at 29.156 SR was asked whether, when she read her statement, she appreciated the difference between ‘I didn’t let a man touch me until I was 33’ and ‘I didn’t let a man touch me like that or in that way until I was 33’. SR said that she did not actually read it and sometimes her brain just fills things in. She probably did not notice that it was not right.157 141 SR said the accused first drove her home after ballet when she was about 13 ½ years old. She could not recall the last time she was driven home.158 142 SR agreed she told police in 2020 that the trip to New Zealand was a two- week trip when she was 14 years old, and it was over the Christmas school holidays of 1984-85. She was told by her parents that they paid for the accused. SR also agreed that the school fundraised for them to go on the Europe trip which was over the 1986-1987 Christmas School Holidays when she was 16.159 SR agreed that AP and YC were two years younger and close friends.160 143 When SR was in the bath at the accused’s house in Hutt Street the water was higher than the bottom of her ribs, around nipple height as she was leaning over and the bubbles were at eye height.161 SR could not recall what the accused was wearing but she pulled up her sleeves so she did not get bubbles on her.162 144 SR was asked why she did not zip up her sleeping bag when she returned from the toilet during the sleepover at the studio and after the first occasion the accused had touched her vagina and she said: 152 T 290. 153 T 291-292. 154 T 293-294. 155 Defence counsel made an application pursuant to s 34L EA to cross-examine SR on the topic of what she told police about how old she was when she first allowed a man to touch her sexually. On its face, it was inconsistent with what defence counsel said was known about SR’s sexual history. Prosecution did not oppose the application. I formed the view that the evidence would, in the circumstances, be likely to materially impair confidence in SR’s reliability and that it was in the interests of justice to permit this line of questioning. 156 T 294. 157 T 295-296. 158 T 300. 159 T 300-301. 160 T 302. 161 T 304-305. 162 T 308. -- 36 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 35 I’m a two or three time a night wee-er – that’s probably not even a word. At the worst, I can go four times, like last night. I also can’t see in the dark very well, so trying to get out of it, I was more likely to wet myself than anything. So I probably pulled it up a bit, but – I can’t say why.163 145 SR agreed she could have opened or closed her sleeping bag by touch. She said: I probably pulled it up a bit but I really wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to get tangled in it and fall on some poor child either side of me when I needed to go to the toilet.164 146 SR estimated that there were 25 students at the sleepover and rejected the suggestion that there were only around 4-6 students.165 147 SR said that quitting ballet would not have been an option for her, ‘I might as well have died’. SR was asked about the option of attending other ballet schools and said her parents said ‘Nah’: A They weren’t big on having to travel. My dad worked over the north side of the city, so he’d come home to there (INDICATES). And the idea of dropping me back into the city just wasn’t something they were going to go for. Q So that was a conversation you had with them. A Yeah. Q And were the sorts of alternative schools that you were thinking about those ones you mentioned earlier – Sheila Lang, Sue Taylor, Terry Simpson. A Yep. Q So, you raised that, but it wasn’t really an option, and so your only option to pursue your love and hopeful career in ballet was with [the accused], is that right. A That’s what it felt like, yeah. Q That’s how it felt to you. There was never a time when your parents gave you the opportunity to have a different teacher. A Not really, I don’t recall one.166 148 SR agreed that she was more advanced than any of the other students at the accused’s ballet school and that was why she was in a class of her own until another student of equivalent ability joined the school.167 Saturdays were always the busiest of the days at the ballet school because it was convenient to run a lot of classes when children were not at school.168 There were exam classes on Saturday so the 163 T 310, 30-35. 164 T 314, 11-14. 165 T 314. 166 T 315, 36-38; T 316, 1-16. 167 T 317-318. 168 T 318. -- 37 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 36 children who took it more seriously would be attending on Saturdays. There were private lessons on Sundays. SR agreed that she took classes on Saturdays and Sundays was a function of her taking ballet very seriously.169 When SR was asked whether she told police in 2020 that she thought the accused deliberately put her classes on Saturdays and her private lessons on Sundays, she said it was a little unusual for her to have a class on Saturday because of the amount of classes she took during the week. She also said there was not a real need for her to be in on Sunday because she could have practised her own solos during the week.170 149 SR agreed that the first sleepover at Eden Hills was the first occasion of prolonged sexual contact between her and the accused. She agreed that this occasion had stuck in her mind all of these years. She then gave this evidence: Q And you said that she put your hand on her vagina and made you touch it. A Yes. Q And made you touch outside it and inside it. A Correct. Q So, there was penetration. A Somewhat, yes, not all the way in, but enough in. Q But it was a bit more than just skin on skin. A Yes. Q And you said she had what you now recognise was an orgasm. A Yes. I did ask at the time what that was, if she was okay because I didn’t know what that was. And that’s when she said that was an orgasm. Q So, you found out that it was an orgasm because she told you. A Well, she just brushed over it, yes, and since then I’ve come to understand orgasms better. Q Because at that time, you were naïve about sexual matters. A Very. Q You didn’t know what an orgasm was. A No. Q So, it was only when she told you that you knew that that’s what it was. A Yeah. 169 T 319. 170 T 320-321. -- 38 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 37 Q And that happened – she told you about that, sort of, immediately after it happened, is that right? A Yes, it was immediately after, yeah, because that’s when I asked what – Q Not like a few weeks later or something like – A No, no. Q And so, how long – if you’re able to say, it’s a long time ago now, but what’s your assessment of how long you were touching her before she had an orgasm. A I didn’t have a stopwatch on it, but it took a little while, I suppose. I can’t quantify time of when I was that age, to be fair. But it was – Q And I’m sorry I cut you off; you finish. A Might’ve been 10, 15 minutes? I don’t know, to be honest, that is just me estimating with an adult brain. Q I’m not trying to pin you down to this with any sort of precision, but it’s not like it was just, sort of, five or 10 seconds or something. A No. Q And would you describe it as, sort of, something more than a short time. A A little bit more than a short time, yes.171 150 When it was put to SR that she did not say anything in her 2020 statement about touching the accused inside her vagina, SR said that there was definitely touching around the edge of the inside of the vagina. She said she was horrendously traumatised when she gave that statement and did not elaborate ‘hugely’. She had always given her statements to female officers, and she found it difficult to speak about this to a male with a male sheriff’s officer sitting next to her.172 She said she still knew what happened, but she possibly could not articulate enough at the time. 151 SR agreed that in her second statement to police in August 2022 when she was describing this occasion, she said: Our faces were very close together. She used to drink all the time and was always drunk. I can remember the smell of alcohol on her breath. I hated it. When I said she grabbed my hand and put it on her, I mean she made me touch her vagina skin on skin but without penetration at first.173 152 SR agreed that she did not say anything else in that statement about penetration occurring on that occasion. SR said this did not mean it did not happen. She agreed that in her most recent statements she did not mention anything about 171 T 327, 15-38; T 328, 1-24. 172 Immediately after this evidence, arrangements were put in place for a female sheriff’s officer to be present with SR whilst she gave evidence. 173 T 333, 9-15 -- 39 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 38 penetration occurring on the first occasion at Eden Hills. She agreed she had corrected a mistake in one of those earlier statements about the stairs. She then said: Absolutely, I did, but I guess I wasn’t really thinking that I would actually have to be measuring how long my finger went into another woman’s vagina as I was a child and I guess I didn’t know how long my fingers were (INDICATES). So please excuse me if I didn’t say ‘My finger went all the way into somebody else’s vagina’ (INDICATES) in a written statement, because I have to hear myself say those words, and as you can probably guess now, it’s bloody traumatising now, as it was then. I have to hear myself relive this and it’s shit, to say the least.174 153 SR said at least half of her finger went into the accused’s vagina. SR agreed that she had not mentioned in any of her four statements to police that there had been penetration by her of the accused’s vagina on that occasion. SR explained that she was not asked about that and there was a limit to what her brain allowed her to articulate. However, she agreed that she had mentioned the topic of penetration when she said the touching was ‘without penetration at first’.175 154 SR agreed that in none of her statements did she say that the accused had an orgasm on this occasion. She agreed that in 2020 she told police: She grabbed my hand and put it on her. She made me touch her vagina on the outside. She said that there was such a thing as an orgasm and told me what to do to give her one. She was telling me to rub her clitoris. She had my hand and was rubbing my finger on her hand, showing me what she wanted me to do. … I then touched her the way she asked me to for a very short time and then said that I needed to go to the bathroom. I got up, went to the bathroom, I came back to bed and she didn’t do anything further that night. We both went to sleep. The next morning, she never said anything about it.176 155 SR then said maybe she did touch her for a short time.177 When it was put to her that this event did not happen, she said that it did, but she could not bring herself to say everything at a time when she was literally falling apart having to verbalise something.178 156 SR agreed that ‘technically’ the difficulty in getting to ballet when her family was on the Yorke Peninsula for motorcross did not exist when the season was over. However, she added ‘but mum and dad liked not having to take me’. The arrangement that she stayed over at the accused’s house stayed in place anyway. 174 T 334, 15-25. 175 T 334-335. 176 T 335, 22-36. 177 T 336. 178 T 336-337. -- 40 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 39 She did not ever tell her parents she did not want to stay over because ‘it was convenient. And I still got to dance. My focus was dance, that was it’.179 157 SR agreed that the first time she performed oral sex on the accused was in the latter part of 1984. She had been sleeping over at the accused’s house since the 1983 motorcross season. SR agreed that it was between 12 and 18 months after she started sleeping over that the first occasion of oral sex occurred. However, the accused had been hinting at oral sex ‘nearly every fortnight’ but she was ‘dead against it’.180 158 SR agreed that she felt powerless to stand up to the accused, but she had been able to push back on the suggestion of oral sex for 12-18 months. SR was hoping it would never would. When asked if she ever had any hesitation about going to the accused’s house for a sleepover she said she did. SR said that the time she asked her parents about going to a different ballet school was when she was 14 and probably after the first occasion of oral sex.181 She then gave this evidence: Q So, at around that age you had suggested to your parents maybe you could go to a different ballet school. Did you ever suggest to them that maybe during summer, when it wasn’t motorcross season anymore, you didn’t really need to stay over at [the accused’s] place anymore. A No, [the accused] used to make things very easy for my parents, and they’ve got to live with that. They took advantage, I suppose, of her offers to make life easier for them. Q I’m not asking about your parents’ state of mind, I’m just – or what happened between your parents and [the accused] – I’m asking what happened between you and your parents. Did you ever sort of say to them, without telling them why ‘Hey, look, maybe since there’s no Motorcross anymore, I don’t need to go over there to stay’. A That also meant I wouldn’t get to classes on weekends. Classes were all I cared about. Put up with the abuse, meant I could dance. And if I didn’t go over on the weekend, I missed out on two days. Now, you don’t dance for two days, your body is not as good by the third day… Q So, it was kind of necessary for you to have classes on the weekends. A In my mind, and how she used to say – she used to say that Margot Fonteyn used to day – say ‘One day off of dancing, you notice it. Two days off, the people around you notice it. Three days off, your audience notices it’. And that’s the exact phrase she used to recite to us. Q And so, did your parents ever say to you, ‘Look, unless you stay at [the accused’s] house, we’re not taking you to dancing. 179 T 338. 180 T 339. 181 T 340. -- 41 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 40 A They used to say, ‘We don’t really want to take you on weekends’. Q So – A Well, they had other things on. Q Right. A Just ‘cos it wasn’t Motorcross didn’t mean that they didn’t. My dad was away all week with work, so when he got home on the weekend you can bet my mum had a whole list of things that poor dude had to do, and he was expected to do that, not run me around. HER HONOUR Q [SR] if your parents had taken you, what would’ve been involved in the transport arrangements. A Well, they just would’ve had to get in their car and drive me there, drop me off, and come back and pick me up later. What they objected to was having to go back and forward twice. Q So on a Saturday they’d have to drop you off in the morning and then come and get you at what time. A Probably 5 o’clock in the afternoon or something. Q And what about Sunday. A Sundays was generally only – pardon me – an hour’s private lesson, but they didn’t want to wait around. XXN Q Can you remind us please, where was the studio. A Seaview Downs. So, not that far away. Q And your parents’ house was and is in Morphett Vale. A Correct. So probably half an hour to an hour turn around. Q So between 15 minutes and half an hour each way. A Yeah. I drive further than that to get to work every day. But that’s not my issue, that’s theirs.182 159 SR was then asked about the other girls who went to ballet school and who lived in the southern suburbs. She said: A One lived closer to me. She was further on. But that particular girl did – she was two years younger, so did different classes at different time. So it, I see where you are 182 T 342, 22-38; T 343, 1-18. -- 42 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 41 going, if you mean car-pooling. It wasn’t really that sort of relationship between her parents and my parents. Q Right. Is that something that you’re doing as I’m going on asking these questions, trying to see where I’m going, and answer the arguments. A No, I think that was my first one.183 160 SR said that YC lived nearby but car-pooling with her would not work: A Well, it wasn’t just something – it had to be something that my parents were trusting with her parents, and my mum really wasn’t a very personable type. I got on quite well with [YC’s] mum – they were Swedish – but my mum just didn’t gel with other parents. She tended to stay away from other parents, so – and she’s probably, my mum would’ve thought it was an inconvenience to go another 15 minutes that way (INDICATES) before going that way (INDICATES). She didn’t exactly go out of her way. Q Did you ever ask [YC’s] mum, who you got along with, whether she might be able to give you a ride to ballet. A Well, it would’ve been a bit hard if I was starting at, say, 9 o’clock and [YC] didn’t have to be there until two. That would have been a big ask, wouldn’t it?184 161 The accused did not touch SR sexually the first time she dropped her home and came in the house. It was at a later time. The first time the accused tucked her in was when the touching started, which was probably a few weeks later. This was around 1983 or 1984. By this time, the accused had befriended her mother. Her mother enjoyed having chats with her, ‘she’d been to a few family things, barbeques, that sort of thing’.185 162 SR agreed that she told police in 2020: [The accused] had been dropping me home after ballet since early 1983 and mum and dad would offer her coffee but by 1984 things had changed. When it was bedtime mum and dad would come and say goodnight, then [the accused] would come into my bedroom and say goodnight.186 163 SR said that her mother occasionally came up but more often than not she would just yell from the kitchen. She said her father came up every time, but her mother rarely did. When she was asked why she told Victoria Police that her mother and father would come up and say goodnight she said: Because they still said ‘goodnight’ and again, Victoria Police, four years ago…traumatic, and just put it into a statement. I answered what I could answer at the time. I’m sorry if 183 T 344, 27-36. 184 T 345, 27-38; T 346, 1-4. 185 T 347. 186 T 350, 27-31. -- 43 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 42 that’s not enough now, and I get why you’re nitpicking, but again, I was a kid, and I was stuck between parents that were absent and a person who is abusing me.187 164 It was put to SR that she had told police that the abuse started after the best part of a year rather than a few weeks. She said: Okay, so a year makes it less bad than if it was a few weeks. We are talking 40 years ago, so maybe it felt like it was a few weeks later. I can’t say if it felt a few weeks later or it was a year later, quantifying that must have been what I recollected at the time of making a statement to the Victoria Police during COVID 4 years ago extremely traumatised.188 165 SR denied she had been at pains during her evidence to point out just how bad a parent her mother had been. She said she was an absent mother and probably dropped the ball on several occasions. SR agreed she went to work picking mushrooms to help SR get through ballet school in New Zealand but said she hated every second of it.189 166 It was put to SR that the accused became something of a mother figure to her. She objected to that phrase and said she was not like a mother. She would never have said at the time that she was like a mother.190 167 SR said her father has cardiomyopathy now but was not aware of a diagnosis relating to or difficulty with his cognitive ability. He is now 88 years old.191 168 SR denied telling the police officer who took her 2020 statement that the accused said goodnight and got up and went downstairs. There were no stairs in their house.192 169 I asked SR whether her parents ever let her catch buses anywhere. She said: No, they weren’t bus people, and to be fair, I don’t know if it’s any better out there now, the bus system out in Morphett Vale was 7173, probably still is, and they were hourly and they went down to Darlington, so there wasn’t a bus that I could have got anywhere our near our house to have gotten me to school, and if I caught the bus down, I would have to have got off at Darlington, worked out if there was another bus to get to the studio, which I’m sure there wasn’t, or walked quite a distance.193 170 SR said that on the Europe trip, YC asked if she could swap rooms with her.194 171 SR confirmed that she could not move back into her parents’ home after returning from New Zealand because they had rented out her bedroom to her 187 352, 36-38; T 353, 1-3. 188 T 351, 3-9. 189 T 351. 190 T 353. 191 T 354-355. 192 T 355-356. 193 T 356, 37-38; T 357, 1-8. 194 T 359. -- 44 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 43 brother’s friend. She found out that it had been rented out when she was still in New Zealand.195 She then gave the following evidence: Q Whatever difficulties existed in the relationship between you and your parents, as an 18-year-old woman at that stage, if you’d had the option to move back in with them, would that have been preferable to moving in with your abuser. A The problem also was that I had no way of getting to dancing. So whilst the idea of living in that situation was definitely a better option, the option was also – had bad strings attached because it meant that I couldn’t get to dancing. I didn’t drive. Q When you were doing – I’m sorry. A I was just saying that because I couldn’t drive yet and mum and dad didn’t want to take me any more. Q When you were dancing fulltime- A Yep. Q – how did you get there. A So I was allowed to – on some occasion I caught a bus down to Darlington and [the accused] would come along and pick me up. So there was a stage, like, probably the second year, where that would happen because mum was getting sick of driving me. But when I came back from New Zealand it wasn’t the same studio, it was one right in – in town. Q So would that may – would that have made bus services a bit more available to get into town, rather than to a sort of another part of the Southern suburbs that was a few kilometres away. A No I would’ve had to have changed buses and things and I have to admit, I wasn’t really good with that sort of thing. So it was – it made me really nervous just catching the bus and going down to Darlington, so. Q So it would have been better to live with [the accused] who’d been abusing you sexually for a number of years than – A It wasn’t – Q – to change buses. A It wasn’t a ‘better option’ and that isn’t as simple as that…it wasn’t ‘Well rather than catch a bus, you were just going to go with somebody who abused you’. It just wasn’t that simple. Dancing was all that mattered still, I had to go wherever I could get my dancing and I know that that’s impossible for somebody like the defence to understand, but it is all that mattered to me and being able to accept – access those classes was all that mattered. I thought, as I did when I was younger, I could put up with most things on the side of it as long as I had that prize and whilst I was deeply 195 T 360. -- 45 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 44 upset that it ended up landing me back in that situation, the one thing I, sadly, to call it this, had on my side was an eating disorder that put her off from abusing me.196 172 SR returned from New Zealand in late 1988 and started with the Queensland Ballet in January 1991. During that time, she lived with the accused at Clarence Gardens. She was asked whether she took any steps to investigate living somewhere else and she said: A No, sadly. I didn’t have any money and I didn’t have a car. Investigating other options would mean a way of getting around and some bloody money to do it. Like if I was going to rent somewhere else, how do I pay the bond. I meant I wasn’t stupid, I’d been renting places in New Zealand. I know how that works. I didn’t have any of that. I had no access to financial help at all, or a car to even drive away from it. No. Q Did you ever take any steps to investigate teaching at one of the other studios you mentioned yesterday, Sheila Lang or one of the others. A No. The way that my classes that I was dancing were paid by was by me teaching in that reciprocal cycle. So if I wasn’t teaching for her and I was teaching somewhere else, then that wouldn’t be working out for me to have my own classes. And just to be clear, teaching at more than one school is generally frowned up. 197 173 SR agreed that the accused took her to hospital after she returned from New Zealand. She recalled that it was Easter, but she was not sure whether it was in late March 1989 or the following year.198SR agreed that the thrust of what the accused told her on the way to the hospital was that she had to tell hospital staff that she was the one who wanted to be thinner.199 174 SR was asked questions about her discussions with hospital staff about the accused: Q And so my question was, if you remember, whether you told people at the hospital that you and [the accused] were very similar and had the same star sign. A I don’t recall saying any of that. I’m not sure why I would say in relevance to me being in hospital being sick. Q Did you tell them that she was really sweet. A Don’t recall saying anything like that. I didn’t – think I would never have referred to her as ‘sweet’, not my words. Q Did you tell them that you cared for her. A I don’t recall that at all. Q That she was like a mother. 196 T 360, 34-38; T 361, 1-33, T 362, 1-13. 197 T 364, 34-38;T 365, 1-13. 198 T 365. 199 T 366. -- 46 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 45 A No. Q That’s not something you would have said, was it. A I have a mother. She might not be great but she’s still my mum. Q Did you tell them that she was a best friend. A No, best friends of mine are not 24 years older than me and they certainly don’t abuse me. She is not my best friend. Q And did you tell them that she had a good sense of humour. A Well, I do think she had a good sense of humour, but I can’t see the relevance that I would be telling hospital staff that. I just can’t imagine that that would have been said. Q You wouldn’t have been speaking about her in positive terms to the hospital staff other than what she told you to say in the car. A I would have been saying she is my ballet teacher. I don’t think I was there to say what her good points were because, to be honest, she weren’t the one in hospital and they don’t care. They don’t ask my husband if he’s a – you know, I’m in getting cancer treatment and they’re asking me what my husband’s like. Believe me, that didn’t happen. Like, they’re not going to ask me that. HER HONOUR Q [SR] when you were in hospital, did you know what your star sign was. A Yeah, because [the accused] had given me a star sign book at some stage during the years with all the star signs. She was really into star signs. I’m not big on them myself, but – Q And what was your star sign. A Aries, the same as hers.200 175 SR said that she was 17 years old when she stayed every second weekend with the accused in her grandparents’ house when they were holidaying in Queensland. They lived in Reynella which was 10–15-minute drive. SR agreed that the accused could have lived in that house between Hutt Street and Eden Hills.201 176 SR agreed that the accused was happy that SR was accepted into the Queensland Ballet because it made her look good. However, she said that as the time got closer, the accused kept saying ‘you know it would be good you stayed. 200 T 366, 36-38; T 367, T 368, 1-31. 201 T 370-371. -- 47 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 46 I’ll give you half of my studio if you stay’. SR told the accused ‘No way mate I’m out of here’.202 SR’s mother – EK 177 EK was 80 years old when she gave evidence. She finished school after completing intermediate and worked for an insurance broking company doing typing and shorthand. She stopped work three years later when she married PWK. PWK has a heart problem and his mobility is not good.203 178 EK and PWK had two children, SR and PK. They have always lived in the same house in Morphett Vale. EK said that P2 was an accurate plan of the house.204 179 EK went back to work picking mushrooms when SR started doing more ballet classes and her husband’s income did not stretch that far. PWK was a mechanic by trade but ended up selling heavy earth-moving equipment. He was often away for work.205 180 EK said that SR did not have a lot of friends at school because most of the girls played netball and she was not interested in netball. They were not very friendly to her. She was bullied in primary school because she would not play netball. There were no issues of that type in high school.206 SR’s grades in high school were quite good.207 It was not their decision for SR to leave mainstream schooling. She was not happy about it because she thought she could have stayed in school a bit longer. EK said that SR was pretty good at ballet.208 181 Her son, PK, liked racing dirt motor bikes and going to Speedway. Motorcross season was over winter and was held in Kadina. PWK ended up getting a motorbike and went riding with the older men. It was a day trip to Kadina, and they did not stay overnight when they went there for Motorcross.209 182 SR’s only hobby was ballet. She started ballet at a studio in Morphett Vale and then as she developed, she went to an affiliated studio on Kensington Road, Norwood on Tuesday nights. EK took SR to the studio at Morphett Vale and on Tuesdays there was a group of children who went, and they took it in turns to drive. EK’s mother-in-law would make costumes for SR.210 183 EK met the accused when she commenced as a teacher at the Morphett Vale studio. When SR moved to the accused’s ballet school, it was in Seaview Downs. That was around 5-10 kilometres from her house, a twenty- or thirty-minute drive. 202 T 372-373. 203 T 382. 204 T 383. 205 T 384-385. 206 T 385-386. 207 T 409-410. 208 T 417 209 T 387. 210 T 388. -- 48 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 47 EK would take her to the studio most of the time. The accused would sometimes drop her home because there were other girls who lived in Morphett Vale and Hackham. When SR moved to the accused’s ballet school her involvement in ballet increased gradually.211 SR was in late primary school or early high school when she started ballet classes with the accused.212 When SR was around 12 or 13, EK said she was usually outgoing. SR carried on about ballet and EK could not get her interested in sport because ballet was so important.213 184 EK said the accused was a good teacher. She was stricter with her ballet; the previous teacher had not been as precise. EK knew of other ballet schools. When asked whether she ever considered sending SR to any of those other ballet schools, she said: I did suggest it, but someone, [SR] didn’t like it.214 185 This conversation took place when SR could still have been in high school.215 EK suggested this because she did not like the influence the accused was having on her, ‘whatever [the accused] wanted she got from [SR].’ She was concerned about how much time she was spending with the accused.216 186 EK attended a mature-age class at the accused’s studio every week for about a year, after she got the studio up and running.217 187 EK was asked about dropping SR off to ballet class: Q …You talked about dropping [SR] off at ballet classes, and I think you said sometimes [the accused] would bring her home. Did that take up much of your time back in the day when [SR] was learning ballet. A No, not really. Q Did the fact that [the accused] was bringing [SR] home sometimes, was that of assistance to you in any way. A Well, it saved either [PWK] or me going down to pick her up, yeah.218 188 The accused started dropping SR home soon after SR started at the accused’s studio. This went on for years.219 The accused would regularly come in and have a coffee. This was always in the evening. PWK was there when he was not away for work. The accused would stay for about half an hour.220 The accused did not come 211 T 388-389. 212 T 390. 213 T 392-393. 214 T 391, 28. 215 T 391. 216 T 422. 217 T 393-394. 218 T 394, 13-25. 219 T 394. 220 T 395-396. -- 49 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 48 over for social get togethers or family events. EK did not visit her at her home.221 EK only saw the accused when she dropped SR home, or when EK was doing the mature age classes.222 189 SR did not have a particular bedtime routine when she was 12-14 years old. Her bedtime fluctuated with her dancing classes. PWK did not go to SR’s bedroom to say goodnight; she usually said goodnight to him in the loungeroom. EK might go to her bedroom when she was younger, in her early teens. There were times when SR would just take herself off to bed. The accused would have coffee with EK in the loungeroom. SR would hang around and then go off and get ready for bed. EK was asked whether there were ever times that the accused went down to say goodnight to SR. she said, ‘No, I don’t think so’. EK could not recall a time when the accused went to SR’s bedroom. The accused was with EK the whole time when she came over for a coffee.223 She would come over three times a week for a coffee.224 The accused never drank alcohol when she visited. EK would only have an occasional drink and that was white wine, and her husband might have a small port.225 190 EK said her relationship with the accused was all right and friendly, but she was not really a friend.226 By the time SR was about to go to New Zealand, the accused was no longer coming into the house when she dropped off SR. She could not remember when that started to change.227 191 EK said that sex or sex education was ‘most probably not’ discussed with SR. EK thought they had sex education at school because SR would come home and tell her that. She could not remember how old SR was. EK spoke to SR about menstruation, because SR was later starting.228 SR told EK the first time she had her period, and it was when she was in high school. EK could not remember what she said to SR about that.229 192 SR lived in New Zealand for a year to study ballet. When she returned, she did not move back home but lived with the accused until she was accepted into Queensland Ballet.230 193 The accused house sat for EK’s parents-in-law for two to three months before SR moved to New Zealand.231 EK could not recall a sleepover at the studio. She recalled the accused taking SR to see the professional ballet, but she could not remember how old SR was. SR did not come home that night and EK presumed 221 T 396. 222 T 401. 223 T 397-398. 224 T 399. 225 T 409-410. 226 T 398. 227 T 399-400. 228 T 400. 229 T 401. 230 T 390-391. 231 T 402. -- 50 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 49 she stayed with the accused because there was nowhere else.232 EK went to the flat in Hutt Street a couple of times and to the accused’s house on Sturt Road, but not very often. She went to Hutt Street to drop off or pick up SR.233 194 SR would stay over at the accused’s place quite often. EK did not know how that arrangement started. EK could not recall a discussion with the accused about this topic.234 The sleepovers started a few years after SR started ballet school with the accused. She was in late primary school or early high school.235 The sleepovers continued until SR went to New Zealand. EK asked SR where she was sleeping, and SR said on the lounge. SR told EK that the accused gave her clothing and jewellery. She could not recall her getting soft toys. EK saw the clothes but not a lot of the jewellery. She saw a couple of pieces of gold jewellery. The clothing was very similar to the clothing worn by the accused. There was nothing distinctive about the colours of the slacks and tops.236 195 The accused bought PWK and EK a galah who they named Charlie. They had him for a long time.237 196 One day SR came home with her hair dyed black. EK did not really discuss this with her. EK could not recall SR injuring her back.238 197 The cost of SR’s ballet lessons impacted the family because the left-over money went towards her costumes. EK would receive an account and she would pay the fees. The cost increased as SR had more lessons. There was no discussion about the accused giving SR a discount on her fees. No discount showed on the account. When SR was in New Zealand, they paid for the hostel where she lived. This was when EK was picking mushrooms. When SR turned 18, they continued to pay for her lessons and did so until she went to Queensland. She paid cash for the invoices the accused rendered. SR brought the invoices home but was not living there at the time. EK knew that SR was having private lessons as well.239 EK then said that she did not know if they paid for all the lessons after SR came back from New Zealand. SR was not ‘home terribly much’.240 198 When SR was away in New Zealand, one of PK’s friends, D, stayed in their house for a couple of months because he had a relationship break-up. EK thought it was only going to be a few weeks, not two months. He paid board. When EK and PWK visited SR in New Zealand mid-year she dropped the hint to PK that it 232 T 403. 233 T 402-404. 234 T 405-406. 235 T 407. 236 T 408. 237 T 408-409. 238 T 409. 239 T 413. 240 T 414. -- 51 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 50 would be nice if D left when they were away. He left when SR was in New Zealand.241 199 When SR returned from New Zealand she used to come home on some weekends and stay overnight. She slept in her bedroom. Either the accused would drop her off or they would pick her up. The accused did not come inside on the occasions she dropped off SR. PK was still living at home then. EK said that SR looked ‘stringy’ and EK was worried about her appearance. SR did not take any notice of what EK said about her appearance.242 200 EK could not recall SR going on an earlier trip to New Zealand. EK said that SR and a couple of other girls went overseas for ballet, and they paid for most of it. SR contributed to it. They did not pay for the accused.243 201 EK said that the accused ‘made a big fuss’ about SR and SR was the number one student. The accused would occasionally say SR was going well.244 SR was on Touch of Elegance and Hinch when she was 15 or 16 years old.245 Cross-examination 202 EK said it would have been unusual for the accused to have gone into SR’s bedroom and said goodnight. She was then asked: Q And what about if she went into her bedroom to say goodnight and stayed there for 45 minutes or an hour or something. A No, that didn’t happen. Q And that would’ve been something you would’ve noticed, if that happened. A That – yeah.246 203 EK did not think that the accused had ‘money to burn’ when she started the studio. PWK paid for her to get a new set of tyres and he serviced her car and changed the oil. He did not think her car was safe given she was transporting the girls around.247 204 EK said she thought SR started sleeping over at the accused’s house before PK started doing Motorcross. EK agreed that she told police: I know that [SR] stayed at [the accused’s]. It would have been suggested by [the accused]. My son would’ve been about 17 years old and used to do bike riding, and so my husband, [PWK], and I would go to Kadina on a Saturday with him. [SR] would stay at [the accused’s] either on the Friday or Saturday so that she could keep doing her dancing. The 241 T 413-415. 242 T 419-421. 243 T 416. 244 T 418. 245 T 422-423. 246 T 425, 7-13. 247 T 425. -- 52 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 51 bike-riding was every fortnight over the winter months. I think [SR] was about 13 or 14 years old at this time.248 205 By the time that SR came back to Australia from New Zealand her room was definitely free again:249 Q Did she ever say anything to you or your husband about whether she could move back in with you when she came back to Australia. A No, she didn’t. Q And you never told her that she couldn’t. A No. Q If she wanted to come back – A If she wanted the – yeah. … Q She was only 18 at the time. A Yeah.250 Re-examination 206 When EK was asked whether she recalled the accused ever going into SR’s room and she said, ‘no, not really’ she meant that she could not really recall that she did, but she did not know for sure.251 YC – ballet student 207 YC is now 52 years old. She met SR through ballet. YC started studying ballet from the age of 3 or 4 but met SR between 10-12 years of age. She first met SR at the Ecole de Ballet which was the Morphett Vale ballet school and then moved to the accused’s ballet school. YC lived at Hackham. When YC was going to Ecole de Ballet she also went to the Norwood studio once or twice a week but most of her lessons were at Morphett Vale. When she had classes at Norwood, she was dropped off at the train station and then she would catch the train and then the bus to Norwood. Her father would pick her up after lessons and take her home.252 208 When she moved to the accused’s ballet school, she had some lessons with SR, but SR was a year older and a level higher than her. YC stopped studying ballet with the accused when she was 17. When YC was at the accused’s ballet school, SR was there at the same time. There were times when SR was in New Zealand or 248 T 426, 7-16. 249 T 426. 250 T 427, 1-12. 251 T 427. 252 T 429-430. -- 53 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 52 Queensland studying. YC was friendly in class with SR but did not see her outside of class.253 The accused as a ballet teacher 209 YC was asked how she would describe the accused as a ballet teacher. She said: A I actually, you know, really appreciated the way she taught me, you know, she had a very strong focus on technique, which really created that basis for being able to do more stuff and grow and develop, and she was able to sort of share and she had a high work ethic, you know, from her students. She expected people to, you know, do their best. Q Did she help you to improve your ballet. A Yes. Q And to your observation, did she help improve other dancers that were in the studio. A Yes. … Q And did you have the opportunity to observe [the accused’s] interactions with other students while you yourself were at the studio doing your study. A Yes, yes. Q To your impression, did [the accused] treat all of her students equally and the same. A I would say that she’d have her favourites, almost a favourite in most classes. So, you know, I recall a favourite in my sister’s class for example. But, yes, she didn’t necessarily treat everybody the same. If people showed promise she’d put extra attention into those. Q What does ‘extra attention’ look like to what you saw. A It was that – focussing on what they were doing, showing them and supporting them in how to improve. So, if the goal was to get the leg higher for example, she would show exercises as to how to develop the strength to do that; techniques. You know, make sure that, you know, you’ve got your turnout and toes pointed, legs straight, those sorts of things. Q Was there anything else about what you observed of those students that were the favourites that make you say they were the favourites. A Probably just that they – she got – they got the extra attention or the better parts in concert of many concert dances. 253 T 432. -- 54 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 53 Q And in your observations of [the accused] and her dealing with other students, can you describe the tone with which she dealt with students when she was helping them with her work in teaching them. A It varied is probably the easiest way to describe that. There were times when it was really supportive. There were times when it was, you know, I didn’t see it out of the ordinary, you know, or ‘Okay, I’ve told you guys this 100 times’, you know, ‘Do it properly’ type thing so- 254 210 YC said that in her first year at the accused’s school she won a few awards and she thought she was one of the accused’s favourites. A year or two later it became clear that SR was the favourite. SR had extra time with the accused and had more of an opportunity to excel.255 211 For YC, ballet was her life. She was at the studio after school most days and also on Saturdays. She saw SR there on some occasions on those days. YC had private lessons with the accused for competition dances. The accused decided if she went into competition dances, got a part in a production or was ready to do an exam.256 The relationship between SR and the accused 212 YC noticed that the accused and SR became closer over time. SR no longer used the same dressing room as the other students; SR was always the last one to be dropped off even though her home was one of the closest ones to the studio.257 YC did not get any specific gifts from the accused, and she was not aware of SR receiving any. Over time, SR started to dress in a similar way to the accused.258 213 YC was asked if she ever saw SR and the accused being affectionate with each other and she said, ‘If I had, it didn’t stand out in my mind’. Her understanding of being affectionate was cuddles, excessive keeping of an arm around someone, a kiss beyond a peck. The accused would give the students a hug and ‘that sort of stuff’ particularly if they performed well. This was a form of encouragement.259 YC said there was no ritual at the end of a lesson or when the students left the studio beyond doing a curtsy and saying goodbye. YC said she did not recall giving the accused a kiss on the cheek as she left and said it would not be a regular thing. It was customary to curtsy at the end of a lesson or the end of a performance.260 Weight and body shape 214 YC said that the body shape and body type for a ballerina was very specific – very long and lean, very skinny. The accused would conduct a weigh-in once a 254 T 432, 26-37, T 433, 15-18, T 434, 1-32. 255 T 434-435. 256 T 436-437. 257 T 438. 258 T 439. 259 T 439-440. 260 T 441. -- 55 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 54 week and recorded the weights on index cards. If they put on weight they would be told off. YC was once told to look in the mirror at her bottom and told, ‘look how big it is’. The weigh-ins did stop but she could not recall when.261 215 YC then gave this evidence: HER HONOUR Q You said the body shape for a ballerina was very specific, long and lean and very skinny; where did you get that understanding of the body shape for a ballerina from. A Largely from [the accused] plus looking at movies and, you know, the expectation of professional dancers and prima ballerinas, and those sorts of things. Q So your understanding of the body shape for a ballerina, was it restricted only to what you learned from [the accused] or was it wider than that. A It was predominantly there, but then backed up by what we saw because we didn’t have the online, you know, world as we do now.262 216 YC was shown P4 and said her father kept this article. Her body size and shape changed after that photograph when she went through puberty. SR was a lot skinnier after she returned from New Zealand.263 Sleepover at the studio 217 A drawing done by YC of the layout of the ballet studio was tendered: Exhibit P6. The accused’s ‘area’ as marked on P6 was the area used by SR as a dressing room. No other students used that area. YC said there was one sleepover at the studio on a weekend not long after it opened.264 YC said she was pretty sure there were only four students who slept over – SR, AP, MBB and herself. She was not sure if there were students there earlier who did not sleep over. They were the oldest students at the school. They danced and had pizza and were picked up on the Sunday morning.265 218 YC, AP and MBB slept in sleeping bags with pillows against the wall under the small bar. SR and the accused were next to each other in front of the mirrors and separate from her group. She did not recall whether there were lights on or not. She did not have a specific recollection of going to bed.266 The next day, SR said to her ‘did you hear my teeth chatter, you know, I was so cold last night’.267 219 YC never slept over at the accused’s house but did visit her place in Millswood when she was 17 years old. She also went to her place in Hutt Street, 261 T 442. 262 T 442, 18-30. 263 T 444-445. 264 T 446. 265 T 447-8. 266 T 448. 267 T 449. -- 56 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 55 but she could not recall why. All she could remember was that it was a townhouse and there was red velvet. YC’s mother was with her.268 The Europe trip 220 YC went on a ballet tour to Europe with the accused, SR and AP. She and AP shared a room, and the accused and SR shared a room. She did not go into the room they shared during the trip. YC did not recall having any conversation with SR or the accused about changing rooms. YC was happy sharing with AP, other than the fact that she was messy. YC was asked whether there was anything about the interaction between the accused and SR that was different on this trip and she said, ‘nothing that really came to mind’. YC enjoyed the trip for the most part and the highlight was seeing her grandparents who came from Sweden to Denmark.269 ‘zoomies’ and ‘hoo’ 221 YC never heard the accused use the term ‘zoomies’ or ‘hoo’ when she was at the studio.270 Cross-examination 222 When the studio opened, YC said there were around 20 students with the youngest around 3 or 4 years old.271 223 At the time of the Europe trip, YC was closer friends with AP than SR.272 224 When YC won the awards aged 12, the accused was not a prominent person in the ballet teaching network in Adelaide.273 SW – initial complaint 225 SW was 56 years old when he gave evidence. He danced with the Queensland Ballet Company from 1987-2001. He was promoted to the rank of principal dancer in 1991. He met SR when she joined the Queensland Ballet Company and they dated for a short while. They were dance partners for a lot of roles with the company and she was there from 1991-1994. He would have met SR for the first time when she auditioned, because anyone who wanted to audition would do a class with them.274 268 T 450. 269 T 452-453. 270 T 454. 271 T 455. 272 T 456. 273 T 457. 274 T 460-461. -- 57 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 56 226 SW dated SR for around six months. He described it as ‘boyfriend/girlfriend’ and he took her to see his parents. He was asked if they were sexually intimate together275 and he said: Sexually, never. We never actually had sexual intercourse. We were intimate with kissing, but there was a time where we were, I thought, close enough to be about to have sexual intercourse, but she seized up. She wasn’t able to, and when she explained why, that made sense. And so, we physically were more suited to being friends, and it made sense in the company because it was an easier relationship with regards to working with each other and, yeah, so we were never sexually intimate. We certainly kissed, held hands for a period of time.276 227 This conversation took place within the first couple of months after she joined the company because they started going out relatively quickly.277 SW then provided more details about the conversation: We got on very well and when that situation happened, we were at her – somewhere. I don’t know if it was her friend’s or her place. I know that we were playing guitar, I was playing guitar, and we were getting on with her friends. And we were in a room afterwards, and we were making out, doing very well, we were kissing. And then when we tried to go a bit further, she literally seized up and started crying. And I don’t generally remember if she told me then or the next day, but she told me she’d been sexually molested when she was younger – or before she joined the company – from, as it turned out, her dance teacher. And when I asked her why or who it was, she just said it was – you know, her dance teacher was female, which that’s the only reason I fully remember it, I think, because I was – I hadn’t considered a female would molest a female at that very young stage in my life. So that’s pretty – she didn’t go into any detail, she didn’t say what had happened or how it had happened. But it seemed very clear that she was not going to be interested in sexual intercourse because it just made her very, very uncomfortable.278 228 SW said that SR told him it happened over a period of time, but he could not say whether she told him how long. They did not date after this but stayed very close friends. There was a very close community in the company because they spent so much time together and SW still sees the dancers from the company. He said that if SW came up tomorrow, she would happily stay at his place.279 AP (nee AE) – ballet student 229 AP was 52 years of age when she gave evidence. She learned ballet as a child and spent many years as a professional ballet dancer. She moved to the accused’s studio when she was 10 years old. She moved there because she had been studying the Cecchetti method but in London they study the Royal Academy of Dance method and she wanted to go to London one day. The accused taught the RAD 275 I granted the prosecution leave to adduce this evidence pursuant to s 34L EA. Counsel for the accused did not oppose the application. I was satisfied that the evidence was of substantial probative value and that it was in the interests of justice to admit it. The reason SR made the complaint at the time she did was inextricably linked to the sexual activity with SW sought to be led by the prosecution. 276 T 462, 20-30. 277 T 462. 278 T 462, 38; T 463, 1-22. 279 T 463-465. -- 58 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 57 method. A career in ballet required a huge level of commitment. Some of that was inbuilt and some was teacher driven.280 230 The accused encouraged her in those aspirations: I think it was all or nothing with [the accused]. It was either you were going to be a, you know, a – you were either going to be committed or not committed. I think those that weren’t committed, she probably didn’t have as much time for. She was – we were quite – the girls that were with her a lot were the driven girls that wanted it as a career, so she certainly encouraged it, yeah.281 231 AP studied under the accused for five years and then moved to the Sheila Lang Dance Centre in the city. She met SR whilst at the accused’s ballet school. She was asked if she was a friend of SR’s during her time there and she said: [SR] was a little bit hard to get to know too personally. I felt like she was a little bit older, she was the eldest girl in the school at the time, I think, and I think us girls are a bit scared to share too much or get too close to her because she was so close with [the accused] so we felt like if we told her something, [the accused] would hear, so I looked up to [SR]. She was, like, to me the best dancer in the school so I always wanted to be like her, but I don’t know if I would say I called her a friend. I didn’t see her outside of the ballet studio very much. It was really only in the studio.282 232 AP said that SR had ‘different rules’ from the other students. She was sometimes in the front of the class, sometimes teaching the class. At times it was almost as if she was running the studio with the accused. AP did not recall SR and the accused being physically affectionate; more than anything she recalled them arguing. AP recalled that SR was not very happy back then.283 233 AP said the accused would physically touch the students in the studio to correct a technique, but she was not physically affectionate to them. She did recall her hugging students, including SR.284 AP did not recall going into the accused’s house and never stayed at her house.285 234 AP said it is not possible to succeed as a professional dancer without the support of a teacher. The student needs to be strong but also needs the encouragement and correct training from the teacher. If the teacher does not believe in a student and put the student forward for exams, ‘they just fade into the background’.286 AP described the accused as technically ‘amazing’ and that she was known for her technique. She was very particular and would make the students repeat a simple exercise many times if it meant doing it perfectly. Some students 280 T 468-469. 281 T 470, 3-10. 282 T 470, 28-38; T 471, 1. 283 T 471-472. 284 T 472. 285 T 478. 286 T 474. -- 59 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 58 were in tears because they could not handle that sort of scrutiny and it was intense at a young age.287 235 AP said she always wanted to get the attention that SR received from the accused. AP felt that the accused never really liked her, she was never good enough or skinny enough. AP said they were weighed, but ‘I got weighed at my next full- time studio. It was something back then that they probably did’.288 AP said that ‘back then dancers were skinnier than they ever were’289 ‘…it was just in-bred as a dancer back then, that you had to be thin.’290 236 AP said there was a party at the studio, and she had a sip of cask wine. There were a few parents there. There were about twenty students at the party, but she could not say how many slept over. There were rugs or sleeping bags and pillows. They slept at the studio and her mother picked her up early because she was hungry.291 237 AP went on an overseas trip in 1986 at Christmas when she was 14 years old. She went with the accused, YC and SR. She and YC shared a room, and the accused and SR shared another room. She did not go into their room at any stage. AP said that she felt really homesick because it was a long time to be away from home. She felt quite alone and scared a lot. She was friends with YC but there was tension between them, and they felt scared to tell each other anything in case it got back to the accused or SR.292 238 AP recalled the accused using the word ‘zoomies’ and ‘hoo’ but could not recall the context. 293 239 AP identified a newspaper article with a picture of her and SR; AP was 13 and SR was 16: Exhibit P7. 240 AP did not recall any students kissing the accused as they left the studio. They would curtsy to her which was a custom in ballet. At a performance, they would curtsy to the audience and if the accused had come out onto the stage, they might turn around and curtsy to her.294 She did not receive any gifts from the accused and did not see her giving any gifts to SR. SR dressed in a similar way to the accused towards the end.295 241 AP was very nervous and worried when she decided to leave the accused’s studio and study with Sheila Lang. The accused was a bit manipulative, and it was as if she was the only person who understood them, the only person who could 287 T 475-476. 288 T 476. 289 T 476-477. 290 T 478. 291 T 478-479. 292 T 481. 293 T 483. 294 T 481-482. 295 T 483. -- 60 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 59 teach them ballet. AP described it as a close-knit family or community, almost like a cult and so to go to the opposition felt like a betrayal.296 Cross-examination 242 AP agreed that she was contacted by police in November 2023, and this came out of the blue. She was asked to recall things that happened 35-40 years ago and there were a number of things that were difficult to remember. A week prior to giving evidence, AP was asked to give a further statement which she signed on 10 January 2025. When she gave that further statement, she was asked if the accused used different names for body parts and she said she had a vague memory of the accused doing this. She was asked if ‘hoo’ was one of those words and it seemed familiar. AP agreed she was asked directly the question about whether the accused used other names for body parts. She was asked if ‘hoo’ was one of those words. AP agreed she did not at that time recall the word zoomies but that had come back to her in the last week. AP was asked if she could be mistaken about the accused using those words and she said she recalled both words.297 The accused’s record of interview 243 The interview was conducted on 12 August 2021 and went for three and a half hours. It is an understatement to say that the accused was, at times during the interview, subjected to egregious and unfair questioning, including cross- examination, statements of opinion and false statements regarding the accused’s obligations during the interview. By way of example the accused was told that it was her ‘job to put an explanation to it other than the version of events’ the police had. Despite the fact that no objection was taken to the tender of the interview, I have exercised considerable caution when scrutinising the accused’s answers to ensure that the unfair questioning I have identified has been accounted for in my evaluation of those answers. 244 The accused said she started her own ballet school in 1982 or 1983 and that it was a small school but very successful. She identified her most talented students as being SR, YC and AP. They all had private lessons. SR was older and more advanced than YC and AP. She said they went with her to Europe for training. When talking about SR, the accused said: She was a very talented girl, very sick. Um I don’t know if I should mention it, it’s but um, I would say that she’s the one that’s complaining. What makes you say that. Because every time something goes wrong in her life, I get the blame. But she is er, severe bulimic, was.298 296 T 474-475. 297 T 486-488. 298 Interview Part I, 277-279. -- 61 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 60 245 The accused went on to say that every time something went wrong in SR’s life, she ‘accuses me of this’. She said, ‘I’m supposed to have abused her somehow’. The accused said she had ‘just heard back from people that um, you know that ring me and say dreadful things um, and I thought here we go again’. She confirmed that she was not given specific details. She explained: I don’t know specifically they were actually obscene and dreadful, so I didn’t take much notice, I just turned a deaf ear to it.299 246 The accused described SR as a talented student who needed to be worked on. She said she needed help with her confidence to realise that she was and could be a star. The accused said she pursued SR’s career as best she could and got her into the New Zealand School of Dance. She then explained how she arranged for SR to appear on a documentary as a result of which she received a donation of $2000. SR then told her the Queensland Ballet Company was auditioning in Melbourne and asked the accused if she should go. The accused told her she should use the money to go to Melbourne for the audition. She wanted her to go to Queensland and thought it was amazing. She worked on it to get her there. She was told pretty well straight away that she had the job and then she left for Queensland when was around twenty years old. The accused said: I didn’t know whether she wanted the career or whether it was me that wanted the career for her…I have a feeling it was me that wanted the career for her.300 247 The accused said SR had a sense of humour and she was asked whether her personality meant they had a special bond. The accused said she did not think so. Later she said their relationship became like a friendship, but it was very different because she was much younger. 248 The accused said SR returned from NZ with bulimia and did not want to return to her family home because she did not want to tell her parents. SR moved in with her at Clarence Park; SR had her own bedroom with her own bathroom. She was very sick with bulimia. 249 The accused described herself as not overly sexed and that she did not find sex with her husband enjoyable. She denied being sexually attracted to females. 250 The principal allegations were put to the accused and denied. She could not recall the sleepover at Hutt Street or that SR was in the bath. She said ‘why would I remember those sort of things’.301 The accused recalled the sleepover at the studio and said there were mainly senior female students, around five or six. Her drink of choice was neat scotch. The allegations of touching during the sleepover were put to the accused and she said: 299 Ibid, 311-329. 300 Ibid, 514-516. 301 Interview Part II, 33. -- 62 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 61 Well this, this, this is going to be a he, er, she said I said. I meant I, I don’t recall any of that and I don’t think I would do that seriously…mmm it is, it’s terrible…No I wouldn’t do a thing like that.302 251 The accused explained the necessity to touch students during class to ‘correct’ positions, particularly the pelvis. She said she did not think anything of doing this ‘until you get accusations like this. This is awful’.303 252 The accused said SR would like to sleep over at her house but could not estimate how often. She thought it was possibly every third week, but it could have been every second weekend. The accused said that SR always wanted to stay with her, and she did not think anything of it. She was asked if there was any sexual contact between her and SR and she said she probably gave her a hug or a cuddle, but it was not sexual touching. She was asked if she had touched SR’s vagina, and she said that was not her scene and she could not think of anything worse. The accused then described an occasion when SR was an adult, between 18 and 20 years old, and wanted to have an affair. At the time, the accused had a friend staying over so SR slept in a bed at the end of the accused’s bed and one night climbed into bed with the accused. SR tried to touch her vagina, but the accused pushed her away. However, during the hug, the accused wanted to have a feel of SR’s breast. She said she felt ‘an emotion there’ and ‘it was a definite love right but I’m not sure whether it was just that you know she was a very special girl or and er, I hated seeing her going through all this…terrible terrible disease’.304 253 Later in the interview, the accused explained that when SR was older, she was experimental, as was the accused, but she did not pursue it, and it did not go anywhere. She said she ‘tried, it wasn’t me’.305 254 The accused said she had not had any sexual urges for years and had no desire for sex. She said when SR returned from New Zealand she was quite mature and ‘it obviously went through my mind’ ‘and I thought no, that’s definitely not me. I’m not that sort of person…I’m not a sexual person’.306 255 When the allegation relating to the first sleepover was put to the accused, she said: Oh my God… Sorry I don’t, I don’t believe that. I just think that’s really vulgar and atrocious. I’m not that sort of person for God sake… Are you sure she hasn’t done this with somebody else and blaming me.307 302 Ibid, 265, 271, 276. 303 Ibid, 95-97. 304 Ibid, 558-564. 305 Interview Part III, 278. 306 Interview Part IV, pages 14-15. 307 Interview Part II, 668-672. -- 63 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 62 256 The allegation of mutual digital penetration and the accused having an orgasm was put to the accused. She was asked what she could recall about that, and she said: No not at all. Goodness me. That’s disgusting. Sorry that’s bullshit. Can’t help it. I can’t imagine myself doing that anyway. No. Couldn’t even orgasm with my husband for God sake. What, a, that’s awful. I wouldn’t do that thing. I wouldn’t do those sort of things. Goodness me.308 257 The allegation that she compelled SR to perform oral sex were put to the accused. She said: No I don’t like oral sex. Wouldn’t do it with my husband and I would do it with. Does not appeal. I don’t know it’s just yucky. Er, where the oral sex is supposed to be performed you don’t know where it’s been. I’m sorry. Dirty. Filthy. Might be dirty or filthy. 309 258 The specific allegation regarding the first occasion of oral sex was put to the accused including the allegation that ‘she told me to lick her clitoris’. The accused appears visibly angry on the video and at one point rolled her eyes when she said: Oh come on. That’s ridiculous. I didn’t use those terms. Can’t even use that word. And I would never give anybody instructions like that, that’s awful. Goodness me. I don’t know, I don’t even recall the incident but I just think it’s absolutely disgusting. What she said there. She’s obviously got a good memory or not a memory but a vivid imagination. Goodness me.310 259 The accused recalled when SR first got her period. She denied helping SR insert a tampon. When the specific incident alleged was put to her she said: 308 Interview Part III, 82, 98-102. 309 Interview Part IV, pages 4-5. 310 Interview Part IV, pages 19-20. -- 64 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 63 I don’t recall that, that’s disgusting. That’s not normal. Why would I do that, yuck. Sorry, that’s my favourite word. No. I might have talked her through it but not, definitely not done it…311 260 She could not recall any conversations with SR about having a period. She said: I think her mother would have done that. That’s a mother’s job not mine.312 261 The accused admitted that SR slept in the same bed when she had sleepovers. She said she did not think she had a spare room. She said they would just talk at night, but ‘It’s just turned into something that’s revolting’.313 262 The accused said she hated the word vagina and referred to it as ‘bits’ and breasts as ‘boobs maybe’. She did not call breasts zoomies or use the word hoo. 263 The allegation that the accused dyed SR’s hair and digitally penetrated her in the shower were put to the accused. She responded: Goodness sake. She keeps rambling on like this. No, I didn’t do that. I have no recall of that, and I wouldn’t do it anyway. Right and I would not dye her hair at the age of fourteen...unless her mother gave consent.314 264 The accused said she did not really like EK, and she was not ‘super close with the family’ but they would invite her to dinner. Sometimes she would drive SR home at night and then pop in and they would give her a coffee. She said she did not take her home as often as 2-3 times a week and her parents would pick her up as well. When she dropped SR home, they would sit there and watch television sometimes and then she would go home. She was trying to be friendly with them so that they would realise their daughter had a gift and needed to pursue it. She said SR’s parents were proud of their daughter and what she was accomplishing. When she was at the family home, she would say goodnight to SR when she went to bed. She said her bedroom had a television in it and she would get her to put the music on and look at a blank screen and picture herself dancing to that. She was asked if she ever went into SR’s bedroom, and she said: Of course. I’d say goodnight, give her a hug A peck on the cheek or peck on the forehead. 311 Interview Part III, 399-403. 312 Interview Part III, 32-34. 313 Ibid, 353. 314 Interview Part IV, 504-508. -- 65 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 64 Only when I was at their place. Well maybe a peck on the thing [points to her own forehead] well she’d be laying down, so it was a bit hard to hug.315 265 The allegation of touching SR’s vagina whilst she was in her own bedroom were put to the accused and she said: No. That’s awful no.316 266 The accused said a friend of hers in New Zealand told her that SR had put on weight and needed to lose it. She told SR she needed to lose weight if she wanted the job. She said in those days, ‘you were told you’re too fat, sorry’.317 When SR returned from New Zealand with bulimia, she told the accused that she did not want her parents to know and that is why she moved in with her. 267 When asked at the end of the interview whether there was anything else she wanted to say about her relationship with SR, she said: No. No, there’s nothing else. It’s only, I just tried my hardest with that girl to get her into a lovely job and…what, what I thought she wanted but um…318 268 The allegations of extra-jurisdictional offending in New Zealand and Europe and the alleged offending in SR’s grandparents’ house were not put to the accused in the interview. The accused was not asked if she had an episiotomy scar. Agreed facts 269 The following facts were agreed: Exhibit P9. 1. The accused’s date of birth is 5 April 1946. 2. The complainant’s date of birth is 10 April 1970. 3. During the course of the investigation, Police obtained a statement from Mrs Janet Kerr. It is agreed that if Mrs Kerr were called to give evidence, she would say the following: a. I first met [the accused] over 40 years ago when she arrived in Adelaide to open her own ballet school. At the time I was a business partner of Shelia [sic] Laing Dance Centre, situated on North Terrace, Adelaide. My position was administrator, while Sheila Laing was the head teacher. b. I continued in my role as administrator of the Shelia [sic] Laing Dance Centre, working with Sheila Laing, until the business was sold in 2004. c. During my time in that role, I met and spoke with [the accused] at various ballet related events. These included meetings, competitions and social occasions where the students and teachers would participate. 315 Interview Part IV, pages 41-42. 316 Ibid, 791. 317 Interview Part V, 108. 318 Interview Part V, 350-352. -- 66 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 65 d. I recall occasions when [the accused] would say words to the effect that some parents have no idea and only she ([the accused]) could train the children into becoming prima dancers, and only if she could take complete charge of them. 4. During the course of the investigation, Police obtained a statement from Ms Joanne Crowther. It is agreed that if Ms Crowther were called to give evidence, she would say the following: a. I was a student at [redacted] School of Ballet and Dance, run by [the accused], for about two or three years. During the time that I was a student there, [SR] was also a student. She was older than me. b. My date of birth is 14 March 1971. I think I remember starting at the school when I was about 13 years old. c. My parents owned a rental property at Euro Avenue, Eden Hills. I do not remember the number of the house. d. While I was studying ballet with [the accused], she rented the house at Euro Avenue from my parents. I am not able to be more specific as to when she started that rental arrangement. I do not know for how long she rented that house. e. My father is deceased and my mother has advanced Alzheimer’s. 5. The accused had given birth to a child prior to the charged period of the offending. 6. The interview with Victorian Police was conducted on 12 August 2021. 7. The complainant currently resides in Queensland. 8. 26 March 1989 was Easter Sunday. The defence case 270 The accused did not give evidence. A statement of agreed fact annexing two documents was tendered as part of the defence case: Exhibit D10. It was an agreed fact that ‘the attached page (which is redacted for relevance) forms part of the progress notes under the heading ‘history and examination’ relating to the complainant’s attendance at Flinders Medical Centre on 29 March 1989’. I have read the notes, and in my view, they record the following: [The accused] – v. similar “same star sign” - same sort of moods - really sweet. I care for her. Like a mother, best friend, teacher. - Good sense of humour - Had a weight dis – when 1st started ballet - No boyfriend. Works all the time. -- 67 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 66 Closing submissions Prosecution 271 Ms Dunlop SC commenced her closing submissions by focussing on the overriding ambition that SR had to achieve her dream of being a professional ballet dancer. This led her to put up with many inconveniences and make many sacrifices. However, above all else, it led her to endure years of abuse. Accordingly, it would be far too simplistic an approach to simply reject her account because she could so easily have avoided the sexual abuse by not staying over at the accused’s house. SR meant it when she said she would rather die than quit ballet. 272 Everything SR had done that led to the moment when she received the call saying she had been accepted into the Queensland Ballet Company was, to her, worth it. Ms Dunlop SC said that it was obvious to the accused that SR was driven, and it was this drive and ambition that she exploited and manipulated for her own sexual gratification. SR and the accused spent so much time together that not only did the accused influence her ballet career, but she also made SR believe that without her, she could not succeed. The accused exerted control over SR, including control over her eating habits and the use of weekly weighing to reinforce the importance of remaining thin. It was this influence and manipulation that enabled the sexual abuse. This, together with the gift giving, was evidence of grooming behaviour. The accused became so ingratiated in SR’s life that SR could not live without her. The accused befriended SR’s parents to the point that she was able to sexually abuse SR in her own home whilst her parents were present in the house. Ms Dunlop SC said I should prefer the evidence of SR over her mother on the topic of the friendship between the two of them. 273 SR had few friends and when she started studying ballet full time with the accused, SR became increasingly isolated from outside influences. SR was clear in her evidence that her parents found taking her to ballet an inconvenience and she saw this as a potential barrier to her continuing to study ballet with the accused. When the sleepovers during motorcross started, it was convenient to her parents for those sleepovers to continue after the end of motorcross season because the routine had already been established. SR was so dependent upon the accused that she returned to live with her despite an 11-month hiatus when she was with the New Zealand School of Dance. 274 Ms Dunlop SC asked me to prefer the evidence of SR on the topic of her lack of sexual education and understanding of menstruation over the evidence of her mother. She argued that SR was likely to have a better memory of the first time she menstruated and her mother’s reaction. Ms Dunlop SC said that it was not necessarily that unusual to accept that SR’s mother had never discussed menstruation with her. In addition, Ms Dunlop SC said that SR’s evidence that she did not even know the name for her own genitalia and that she did not have sexual education at school was referable to the time the sexual activity with the accused commenced. Accordingly, the evidence given by her mother that SR told her she had sexual education at school may well have related to a later period in time. -- 68 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 67 275 Ms Dunlop SC said I can be satisfied that SR went to the accused’s apartment in Hutt Street, given the correspondence between her description of the bathroom and the accused’s description in her record of interview. Although that offending was opportunistic, it set the scene for what occurred during the ballet studio sleepover some six months later. SR had not protested when the accused touched her in the bath and did not complain to anyone about it. Accordingly, the accused was emboldened to touch her in the relatively risky setting of the studio sleepover. There was no dispute that the sleepover occurred and that the accused and SR were in sleeping bags near each other. 276 Ms Dunlop SC said that the grooming behaviour started after the sleepover at Hutt Street. The touching in the bath at the Hutt Street sleepover was opportunistic. The touching at the sleepover in the studio was much more deliberate and calculated. 277 Ms Dunlop SC urged me not to evaluate SR’s reaction to the accused putting her hand into her sleeping bag and touching her genitals by reference to how a person might be expected to behave in that situation. In other words, it would be unfair to dismiss SR’s account of returning to the sleeping bag after the first occasion of touching and leaving it unzipped as defying commonsense. Ms Dunlop SC said that whilst it would have been easy for SR to simply zip her sleeping bag up after the first occasion, she was confused about what had happened and thought it must have been a mistake. Ms Dunlop SC said that the divergence in YC and SR’s account of the conversation the next day about the reason SR went to the toilet so often was of little moment. Ms Dunlop SC said when the accused told SR the next day that she could not disclose the sexual abuse because no one would believe her, this shaped SR’s behaviour in the years to come. 278 Ms Dunlop SC then addressed the regular sleepovers at the Eden Hills property during motorcross season. Despite some divergence in the account of SR and her mother regarding the number of nights she stayed over, it was common ground that SR stayed with the accused at least one night on the weekends during motorcross season. 279 Ms Dunlop SC accepted that there were inconsistencies in SR’s account of the first occasion of sexual abuse at the Eden Hills home when compared with her first statement to police. In her evidence she said the accused digitally penetrated her vagina but, in her statement, she said the touching was skin on skin but without penetration at first. However, given the duration and extent of the sexual abuse thereafter, I should conclude that she was simply mistaken about the order of events on that occasion. 280 Ms Dunlop SC said that the offending that occurred in SR’s bedroom at home was not as risky as it at first seemed. If SR’s parents had gone to SR’s bedroom it would have been an easy thing for the accused to move her hand out from under the covers and be observed to be simply sitting on SR’s bed talking to her. Ms Dunlop SC acknowledged that EK gave evidence that the accused did not -- 69 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 68 disappear from sight for up to 45 minutes at a time when she was in their house, having dropped off SR after ballet. Ms Dunlop SC urged me to consider SR’s evidence that the accused was in her room for up to 45 minutes as her ‘perception’ rather than an accurate estimation of the time. In other words, it felt to her like an eternity, given her concern her parents might walk in at any time. Further, Ms Dunlop SC said that EK’s inability to recall the accused spending so much time in SR’s bedroom was explicable by reason of the connection the accused had with SR and the trust her family had in her. In other words, the fact that the accused was doing this would have been of no moment and sparked no concern and has since been forgotten. 281 Ms Dunlop SC said that the conflict between SR and EK’s evidence on the topic of going to another ballet school should be resolved in favour of accepting SR’s evidence. It was suggested that EK was reconstructing, and I should prefer SR’s evidence on this topic. 282 Ms Dunlop SC also dealt with the conflict between EK and SR’s evidence regarding her bedroom being rented out upon her return from New Zealand. It was common ground that her parents allowed SR’s room to be occupied by her brother’s friend at some point when SR was in New Zealand. EK said that SR’s room was empty when she returned from New Zealand. SR said it was still being rented out. Ms Dunlop SC said this conflict could be reconciled on the basis that SR had misunderstood the situation and believed she could not move home. SR said her parents no longer financed her ballet or life. EK said that they continued to pay for her ballet until she left for Queensland. Ms Dunlop SC said I should prefer SR’s evidence given EK’s memory was not completely clear on the topic. Accordingly, SR fell back into the convenient habit of living with the accused. Even when it became apparent on her visits home that her room was empty, the pattern of living with the accused was established. Their relationship had not changed, and the accused continued to exert control and influence over SR. However, when SR’s bulimia reached the point that she became sexually unattractive to the accused, the abuse stopped, and it became easier to live with the accused. 283 Ms Dunlop SC conceded that SR’s evidence that the accused had an episiotomy scar could not be elevated to esoteric knowledge and there was no independent evidence that the accused had such a scar. The only evidence on the topic was that the accused had given birth to a child at some point in time. 284 Ms Dunlop SC accepted that an inference arising from the hospital notes in D10 was that SR had said those things about the accused and did so because that is how she felt about her at the time. However, Ms Dunlop SC urged me to find that the accused’s threat to SR not to blame her for the bulimia led SR to say things to the staff about the accused which were not true. Alternatively, if I inferred that they were truthful sentiments, they were not necessarily inconsistent with SR’s account of being abused because she may well have harboured positive loving feelings about her, despite being unable to acknowledge this in the witness box. -- 70 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 69 285 Ms Dunlop SC said that it was unsurprising that SR could not recall precisely when she first performed oral sex on the accused but when she described this in evidence her emotion shone through. The explicit detail and emotion with which she conveyed what occurred on that occasion was visceral and I should accept that she was describing a lived experience. In the same way, her shame at admitting that at times her body betrayed her was indicative of a truthful account. 286 In respect of the record of interview, Ms Dunlop SC conceded that there were aspects of the questioning that were patently unfair to the accused, and I should disregard those answers elicited by improper or inappropriate questioning. However, as no objection was taken by the accused to the tender of her record of interview, I could have regard to the whole of the interview in my evaluation of the evidence in the prosecution case. Ms Dunlop SC emphasised that the accused did not attend the interview without any foreknowledge of the allegations, although what she had been told was not articulated. Ms Dunlop SC said I should reject the accused’s denial of a special bond with SR. It is clear from the balance of the interview that the relationship between SR and the accused was not the usual teacher student relationship. The accused conceded later in the interview that she was like a daughter to her. Ms Dunlop SC said that the accused’s initial responses to the allegations changed as the interview progressed and she volunteered more information about the nature of the relationship. Ultimately, the accused volunteered that there was a sexual aspect to the relationship and Ms Dunlop SC said this occurred against the background of persistent and forceful questioning. The accused’s suggestion that theirs was like a mother-daughter relationship was inconsistent with the isolated sexual event she described and her own feeling of wanting to touch SR’s breast at one point. Ms Dunlop SC urged me to find that the accused was being half-truthful and downplayed the sexual aspect of their relationship. Accordingly, I should find the accused’s account on disputed matters implausible and reject her denials. 287 Ms Dunlop SC said that the initial complaint to SW demonstrated consistency of conduct because it was made at a time SR might be expected to complain and to a person to whom she might be expected to complain, particularly given the intimacy being shared between the two. Ms Dunlop SC said there was a level of consistency of account by virtue of the reference to her ballet teacher and that the offending occurred earlier in her life but that was the extent of it. 288 Ms Dunlop SC accepted that the delay between the events in issue and the trial meant the accused had suffered a significant forensic disadvantage. Lines of inquiry that may have been available have been lost by reason of the passage of time. 289 Finally, Ms Dunlop SC said any inconsistencies I found proved in SR’s evidence were explicable by reason of the passage of time and did not undermine her emotional and visceral account of the sexual abuse she suffered. If I accepted SR’s evidence of the accused’s conduct as truthful and reliable, the charge had been proved beyond reasonable doubt. -- 71 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 70 Defence submissions 290 Mr Culshaw filed a written outline of his closing submissions which he developed in oral submissions. The only issue in dispute was whether the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused had engaged in two or more unlawful sexual acts with or towards SR between her 13th and 17th birthdays. It was accepted that the conduct described in each of the five particulars on the Information constituted unlawful sexual acts if proven beyond reasonable doubt. 291 The prosecution case depended entirely upon an acceptance of SR’s evidence and a rejection of the accused’s denials in her record of interview beyond reasonable doubt. Whilst it was possible that proof that the accused had an episiotomy scar could have provided independent support to SR’s account, no such evidence was led. 292 Mr Culshaw argued that the accused’s length record of interview was a complete denial of all offending. The denials were strident and compelling. The denials should be accepted or found to be reasonably possibly true for the following reasons: 1. The accused was aware of her right to silence but submitted to a lengthy interview. The impression is that she was doing her best to help police by providing truthful answers to their questions. 2. She presented as a relatively unsophisticated person and naïve about sexual matters. The interview was unvarnished. 3. There is no objective evidence that undermines her denials. 4. She volunteered information or made concessions that one might expect a guilty person to more closely guard such as identifying SR as the potential complainant, admitting that their relationship took a romantic turn when SR was an adult, unhesitatingly accepting she slept in the same bed as SR when SR was a child, and accepting she went into SR’s bedroom to say goodnight to her. 5. Her visible reactions to the allegations were genuine, ranging from bemusement to disgust and to anger. 6. Before the allegations were put to her it was obvious that she did not know what they were. A guilty person would know what to expect. She speculated incorrectly about what the allegations might be. 7. The questioning was prolonged and at times egregiously unfair. Although no objection was taken to the tender of the interview, it must nevertheless be considered in a balanced way. Caution must be exercised in considering the accused’s answers to questions which misstate the earlier answers of the accused. The unfairness attending some of the questions makes the denials more compelling. The accused corrected frequent misrepresentations and conflations of earlier answers by the interviewing officers and maintained a consistent and coherent version of events. -- 72 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 71 293 Mr Culshaw argued that SR’s evidence could not be accepted beyond reasonable doubt for three principal reasons: 1. SR’s explanation for the relationship evidence did not bear scrutiny. 2. The general implausibility of SR’s account. 3. The difficulties in SR’s version of specific events. 294 Mr Culshaw developed his submissions on these three topics in his outline and during his closing address. He said that SR’s evidence smacked of her taking a kernel of truth and embellishing or torturing it in order to sustain a narrative of sexual offending by the accused. Mr Culshaw described SR as a witness who dripped vitriol, particularly towards the two women who occupied mother-figure roles in her life: her mother and the accused. SR’s attitude towards those women was at odds with the incontrovertible evidence of the steps each had taken to advance SR’s interests in life. SR could not bring herself to acknowledge that the accused was a good ballet teacher or give her any credit for SR’s successful career. 295 Mr Culshaw said there were two explanations for the evidence of the relationship between SR and the accused: either the accused deliberately fostered a relationship with SR in order to provide ongoing opportunities to sexually abuse her in a regular and systematic way or the accused was a passionate ballet teacher who knew she had a student with immense potential and pushed her as hard as she could to maximise that potential. The latter explanation was the preferable one. A singularly important piece of evidence that put the lie to the prosecution case was the fact that it was the accused who arranged for SR to have a scholarship for the New Zealand School of Dance in 1988. This evidence comprehensively demonstrated that the accused was promoting and advancing the interests of her pupil rather than keeping SR to herself for the purposes of sexual abuse. This evidence also suggested that SR’s account that the accused was attempting to frustrate her efforts to audition for the Queensland Ballet Company should be rejected. Finally, the hospital notes in D10 provide a window into SR’s view about her relationship with the accused, a view about the accused that, in evidence, SR rejected ever holding. 296 On all accounts the accused was a teacher who demanded much of those students with talent. The evidence of AP demonstrated that the accused treated her in a similar way to SR in so far as telling her she was the only person who could help her achieve her goals and that she should go full time. 297 Mr Culshaw then focussed on the implausibility of SR’s account on material matters. He argued that SR gave false explanations for her behaviour towards the accused because she perceived that it was problematic for the prosecution case. Mr Culshaw disavowed reliance on a line of reasoning that called into play the counter-intuitive nature of some of SR’s behaviour but instead suggested that her evidence was resoundingly contradicted by that of her mother and the inference should be drawn that SR deliberately falsified explanations for her behaviour -- 73 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 72 towards the accused. The most telling examples of the conflict between the evidence of SR and her mother were: 1. EK suggested that SR go to a different ballet school, but SR refused. SR said her parents had flatly refused to countenance the idea of her moving to different ballet schools. 2. EK said that SR’s bedroom was occupied by PK’s friend for some of the time that SR was in New Zealand. However, by the time SR returned to Australia her room was unoccupied. SR said that she could not live with her parents upon her return to Australia because her room had been rented out and so her only option was to live with the accused. 298 Mr Culshaw then addressed the difficulties he said attended SR’s version of specific incidents. 299 The description of the accused’s physical actions during the bubble bath incident was implausible. 300 Integral to SR’s account of the sleepover at the studio was the number of students present and their proximity to her when she was in her sleeping bag. She was definite there were about 25 students. She proffered that this was part of the difficulty in going to the toilet and therefore the reason for having the zip on her sleeping bag open. YC said she was pretty sure there were only four students who slept over. In the diagram drawn by YC (P6) there are no students in the proximity of SR and the accused. Further, she placed SR closest to the bathroom which would suggest that if an open zip was required it would have faced away from the accused. 301 SR said the first sleepover at Eden Hills was a memorable event. However, the following material prior inconsistent statements about the alleged sexual contact were proved: 1. Whether penetration occurred. 2. The length of time over which the sexual contact occurred. 3. The accused having an orgasm. 302 Mr Culshaw said there was no good explanation for the inconsistencies. SR had been given the opportunity in proofing to check for errors in her police statements and corrected an error regarding the presence of stairs in her family home. 303 Mr Culshaw said that the assertion that the accused waited 12-18 months to introduce oral sex into the relationship was surprising and inconsistent with the domineering and manipulative nature of the relationship described by SR. Mr Culshaw conceded that the inconsistency in her prior statement that SR did not let a man touch her until she was 33 years old was admitted and there was a rational explanation. However, he placed reliance on the argumentative manner in which this explanation was given and SR’s endeavour to back away from the importance -- 74 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 73 of the content of the statements as indicative of the concerns about SR’s evidence more generally. 304 Mr Culshaw highlighted the clear conflict between the evidence of SR and EK on the topic of the accused’s visits to the family home when she dropped off SR after ballet class. EK did not really recall the accused going into SR’s bedroom at all and when it was suggested that she went into that bedroom for 45 minutes to an hour, she said, ‘No that did not happen’. Notwithstanding the effluxion of time, if this had in fact occurred it was likely to have been noticed and remembered. SR’s account of the lengthy opportunities for the accused to sexually abuse her in her own bedroom was contradicted by her mother’s evidence and no evidence was led from other family members to corroborate her account. 305 Mr Culshaw ended his closing address with the submission that the denials in the record of interview could not be rejected beyond reasonable doubt and, in any event, the shortcomings in the evidence of SR and the conflict between her evidence and that of her mother was such that her account of the offending could not be established beyond reasonable doubt. Specific directions Significant forensic disadvantage 306 In evaluating the evidence in the prosecution case, I have considered the question of forensic disadvantage. Although s 34CB EA does not apply to a trial by Judge alone, the issue must still be considered if the circumstances warrant it. 307 The issue of significant forensic disadvantage as referred to in s 34CB of the EA was considered by the Court of Appeal in R v Cassebohm,319 R v Maiolo (No 2),320 R v W, PK321 and in R v R, PA.322 308 Delay may create a forensic disadvantage to an accused in the ability to adequately test allegations or adequately marshal a defence in comparison with the position if the complaint had been made with reasonable contemporaneity. 309 The delay may reduce the accused’s ability to effectively conduct his case including to cross-examine the prosecution witnesses in a way which casts doubt upon issues of credibility and reliability. Delay may deprive the accused of a timely opportunity to test the evidence of the complainant, to locate other witnesses, and to try to recollect precisely what the accused was doing on the occasion or occasions in question. As was noted in Cassebohm: 319 (2011) 109 SASR 465. 320 (2013) 117 SASR 1. 321 [2016] SASCFC 5. 322 [2019] SASCFC 19. -- 75 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 74 …after many years have passed it is not difficult to conclude that the normal memory loss that occurs gives rise to a significant forensic disadvantage.323 310 I accept that in this case the accused has suffered a significant forensic disadvantage by reason of the lengthy delay between the dates of the alleged offending and the trial. The accused may have been able to give or lead evidence which might have revealed inconsistencies related to, or implausible aspects of the prosecution case. The accused may have been in a position to marshal documentary or other evidence in support of her defence of the charges. By way of example, the allegation that numerous gifts of jewellery or toys were given to SR by the accused could have been investigated. The existence of alternative means of transport for SR to get to the accused’s studio could have been ascertained. 311 Had the prosecution been instituted at a time proximate to the alleged offending, the memories of important witnesses, such as EK would likely have been much sharper, particularly on the topic of what occurred during the accused’s visits to SR’s home after dropping her off. Conversations on relevant issues would be better recalled, for example whether the conversation SR said she had with AP after the sleepover at the studio in fact occurred. The number of students who slept over at the studio and the use, if any, by the accused of names for body parts would likely be more precisely recalled. The agreed facts also highlight the forensic disadvantage to the accused with respect to the evidence that would have been given by Joanne Crowther regarding the duration and timing of the rental of her parents’ home in Eden Hills to the accused. Her father is dead, and her mother has advanced Alzheimer’s. Ms Crowther could not recall the dates and duration of the accused’s rental of her parents’ home and the passage of time means that evidence cannot now be led from them. 312 It is apparent that the effluxion of time has affected the accused’s memory. For example, in her record of interview, she said she could not recall taking SR to a ballet performance or that she stayed the night and had a bubble bath. The accused could not recall how many times SR slept over at her place. The accused could not recall the places she and SR stayed in New Zealand, other than having stayed with her parents. 313 Accordingly, I am satisfied that the passing of decades since the commission of the alleged offence has resulted in a significant forensic disadvantage to the accused that I will take into account when evaluating the evidence led by the prosecution, and in particular, the evidence of SR. Initial complaint 314 This evidence was admitted pursuant to s 34M EA. Although section 34M (4) does not apply in a trial by Judge alone, I direct myself that the limited purposes for which that evidence may be used is to explain how the allegations came to light 323 [30]. -- 76 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 75 and, depending on the findings I make, to demonstrate consistency of conduct of SR such that it buttresses her credibility because of the circumstances in which she made the complaint and its content and any consistency between it and her evidence about the relevant events. Discreditable conduct evidence 315 Pursuant to a discreditable conduct notice324 and without objection, the prosecution led evidence from SR of sexual contact with the accused that took place outside of the jurisdiction; in New Zealand (the first trip and when the accused visited SR when she was living there) and Europe. The sexual contact was described in general terms and specific incidents were not identified. The evidence is admissible for a propensity purpose because, if accepted, it demonstrates that the accused had a sexual interest in SR and a tendency to act upon that interest when the opportunity arose. 316 However, if I accept and act upon that evidence, I cannot reason that the accused is more likely to have committed the offence charged (or engaged in any of the unlawful sexual acts particularised) because she committed extra- jurisdictional acts of sexual abuse against SR. Findings of fact on undisputed or agreed evidence 317 I make the following findings of fact: 1. I find the agreed facts proved. 2. The accused was an adult and SR a child during the period charged in the Information. 3. The accused knowingly maintained a relationship with SR during the period charged in the Information, namely that of ballet teacher and ballet student. 4. I find that SR told staff at the Flinders Medical Centre on 29 March 1989 that: a. She and the accused were very similar and that they had the same star sign. b. She and the accused had the same sort of moods. c. The accused was very sweet and SR cared for her. d. The accused was like a mother, a best friend and a teacher. e. The accused had a good sense of humour. f. She had a weight disorder when she first started ballet. g. She did not have a boyfriend and worked all the time. 324 DCN filed 13 January 2025. -- 77 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 76 5. SR’s parents have lived in the house at Morphett Vale since SR was born and still live there. SR grew up in that house with her brother PK. Her father PWK is 88 and still alive, although suffers from a heart condition. 6. SR has had an interest in ballet since she was a very young girl. She first met the accused at the Norwood Ballet Centre when she was around twelve years of age. 7. The accused started her own ballet school, [redacted] School of Ballet around 1983. SR was a student at that school from its inception. She was taught ballet by the accused. SR left mainstream schooling after completing year 10 and studied ballet full time at the accused’s studio under the accused’s tuition. 8. In 1988 SR joined the New Zealand School of Dance for 11 months. In January 1991, SR obtained a position in the Queensland Ballet Company and danced with that company for just over four years. Whilst in Queensland Ballet Company, SR dated another dancer, SW. 9. SR, the accused, YC and AP travelled to Europe for a ballet study tour for around six weeks in the 1986 Christmas holidays. The photographs in P 3 were taken on that trip and depict SR, AP, YC and the accused. 10. At the time the accused was running the [redacted] School of Ballet, there were a number of other ballet schools operating in Adelaide, including Sheila Lang’s dance school in the city. 11. The photographs in P4 depict SR when she was 14 years old and YC when she was 12 years old. 12. The photographs in P7 depict SR when she was 16 and AP when she was 13. 13. SR gave a statement to Victoria Police dated 1 July 2020, an affidavit to SA Police dated 27 August 2022 and two further affidavits dated 13 January 2025. On 8 January 2025, SR met with the prosecutor, Ms Dunlop SC and a police officer. Assessment of witnesses and further findings AP, YC and SW 318 I formed the impression that AP, YC and SW were honest witnesses with no apparent bias towards or against SR or the accused. There was nothing about their demeanour that caused me concern. The evidence of YC and AP on all topics was generally consistent. YC had a better recall of the studio sleepover than AP, but nothing turns on that. Their evidence on some topics was inconsistent with the evidence of SR. For the reasons set out below, where the evidence of SR conflicts with that of YC or AP, I prefer and act upon the evidence of YC and AP. 319 I accept AP’s evidence that she could recall the accused using the words ‘zoomies’ and ‘hoo’ but could not recall the context. I am satisfied that her recollection on this topic was prompted by a direct and leading reference to this topic by police a week before she gave evidence. However, as she could not provide any contextual background to the use of either word, and in particular, did not suggest in evidence that the accused used them to describe body parts, the -- 78 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 77 evidence corroborates SR’s account of the accused’s use of those words at only the most general of levels. 320 SW was a charming and deferential witness. He was not cross-examined, and his evidence was unchallenged. I accept his evidence of the circumstances leading up to the conversation with SR and the contents of the conversation. SW said that in 1991, not long after SR joined the Queensland Ballet Company, she told him that she had been sexually molested when she was younger or before she joined the Queensland Ballet Company by her female dance teacher. She did not tell him what happened or how it had happened. She told him it happened over a period of time, but he could not say whether she told him for how long. His account was largely consistent with SR’s account of the complaint, although SR said she told him she was abused for 8 years but she was not sure if she told him, it was her ballet teacher. 321 In evaluating the evidence of initial complaint, I take into account the fact that SW and SR were giving evidence of a conversation that took place over 30 years ago. That is a long period of time and one which will inevitably have affected their respective ability to accurately and precisely recall this conversation. However, I am satisfied that SR made a complaint in general terms of sexual abuse by her ballet teacher and the person to whom she was referring was the accused. I am not able to find positively that SR told SW it took place over 8 years, given SW’s account of the conversation and the findings I have made regarding SW’s credibility and reliability which are detailed below. Given the circumstances in which the complaint was made, I am satisfied that the timing and recipient of the complaint demonstrates consistency of conduct. However, the terms of the complaint were so general and could have been referable to a period when SR was an adult that it is of limited value in bolstering SR’s credibility by demonstrating consistency of account. SR – evaluation of her account Demeanour 322 SR was a voluble and at times argumentative witness. Often in cross- examination she was prolix in her responses to simple questions. I formed the impression that there were occasions during her evidence when she perceived there was a weakness or implausibility in her version of events and sought to provide a justification or explanation for it. Antipathy towards accused and effect upon SR’s evidence regarding her relationship with accused 323 SR had an obvious antipathy towards the accused. Of course, this would not be surprising, if the allegations she made were true. However, SR refused to acknowledge or accept propositions relating to the accused that were self-evident or established by other evidence. For example, SR refused to concede that the accused played any, let alone any instrumental role in her successful career. The evidence establishes that SR was a very talented ballerina; she was accepted into -- 79 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 78 the New Zealand School of Dance and later won a coveted position in the Queensland Ballet Company, outperforming a large number of other applicants for the only place. Her ballet contemporary and fellow student AP described her as the best dancer in the school. SR’s principal teacher was the accused with whom she studied full time after leaving school at the end of year 10. AP described the accused as encouraging and precise in her tuition, making students repeat a simple exercise to ensure it was performed perfectly. AP said the accused was technically amazing and was known for her technique. YC said the accused helped to improve her ballet and that of other students. She paid extra attention to those with promise. She had a strong focus on technique and had a high work ethic. EK said the accused was a good teacher who was stricter than SR’s previous teacher. 324 In contrast, SR said the accused was not a good teacher. She said that whilst there were things the accused did to improve her dancing, SR was the one who did the ‘work’ and the accused’s methods were unnecessary. She said there was no positive reinforcement, and it was demoralising. SR said that the accused did not physically correct other students and that her physical correction of SR was not necessary. AP, however, said that the accused would physically touch the students in the studio to correct a technique but was not physically affectionate to them. 325 SR suggested that ‘nowhere else’ in ballet schools had she encountered the topic of weight, being thin or the weighing of students and that the accused’s practice of doing this was demoralising and embarrassing. AP said she was weighed at the accused’s studio and also at her next full-time studio which was one of the top ballet studios in Adelaide. She said at that time dancers were skinnier than ever, and it was ingrained that to be a dancer you had to be thin. YC said that there was a specific body shape for a ballerina – very long, lean and very skinny. I accept the evidence of YC and AP on this topic and I infer and find that the desirable weight and body shape of a ballerina in the 1980s was not a matter unique to the accused’s method of teaching ballet. It is noteworthy that when SR successfully auditioned for the Queensland Ballet Company, she said she weighed around 6 stone (or approximately 38 kilograms). When the accused took her to the Flinders Medical Centre on 29 March 1989 following her return from 11 months with the New Zealand School of Dance, SR said she weighed 5.5 stone. Her extreme thinness was clearly not something that saw her precluded from dancing with either of those ballet schools. At one point in her evidence, SR said she fit the body type for Queensland Ballet Company. 326 SR said that the accused would relentlessly pick on other students until they cried and eventually left the school. YC, however, described the accused’s manner and tone when dealing with other students as at times really supportive and at other times, she would say tell the students to do it properly and that she had told them one hundred times. AP said the accused was very particular and would make the students repeat exercises until they were perfect. Some students were in tears because they could not handle that sort of scrutiny, and it was intense at a young age. -- 80 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 79 327 SR said that the students had to idolise the accused and when they left the studio at night, they all had to give her a kiss on the cheek before they left. YC said there was no ritual at the end of a lesson or when the students left the studio beyond doing a curtsy and saying goodbye. YC did not recall giving the accused a kiss on the cheek as she left. AP did not recall any students kissing the accused as they left the studio. They would curtsy to her which was a custom in ballet. If kissing the accused had been a ritual as SR described, I would have expected YC and AP to recall it. 328 I prefer the evidence of YC and AP on the topic of the accused’s behaviour towards students, her qualities as a teacher and that being weighed, being thin and of a particular body shape were not unique to the accused’s style of teaching. I formed the distinct impression that SR was trying to paint a picture of the accused as a person who was controlling, manipulative and used methods of teaching and instruction that were aberrant and unnecessary. 329 I find that the accused did everything she could to advance SR’s career including arranging for her to have a scholarship to attend the New Zealand School of Dance in 1988 and taking her, with YC and AP, on a ballet study tour to Europe in 1986. The accused promoted SR and other students in the media. It was because of the accused that SR was on a television show that led to the donation which funded her trip to Melbourne to audition for the Queensland Ballet Company. 330 It was plainly in the accused’s interests as a ballet teacher to promote and encourage talented students and provide them with opportunities to learn and excel. The evidence of AP establishes that the accused treated SR’s talented contemporaries in similar manner. At one point in cross-examination SR said that the accused was happy she won a place in the Queensland Ballet Company because it made her look good. When it was then put to SR that the accused was pleased that SR was going to Queensland to dance with the Queensland Ballet Company, SR then said as the time got closer the accused kept telling her it would be good if she stayed, and she would give her half her studio. I agree with defence counsel’s submission that the cross-examination on this topic revealed SR’s propensity to qualify her evidence when she thought she had given an answer that undermined her account. I reject SR’s evidence that the accused tried to sabotage her attempts to audition for the Queensland Ballet Company by suggesting she wait until the auditions came to Adelaide and then once successful in the audition begged her to stay and offered her half of her studio. Such behaviour was inconsistent with the accused’s promotion of SR and other talented students as described by AP and YC and established by the articles about them in the media. 331 Finally, having received D10 as a business record and having found that the notes accurately record what SR told hospital staff on 29 March 1989, I infer and find that those statements were an honest account of SR’s feelings towards the accused at that time. Whilst expressions of love and affection for a person do not, of themselves, mean that person cannot be a perpetrator of sexual abuse - a victim of sexual abuse might nevertheless love and care for his or her abuser – that is not -- 81 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 80 the issue here. Those statements are inconsistent with the evidence of SR regarding her feelings towards the accused at all material times. In evidence, SR refused to accept that she would have described the accused in the terms recorded in D10. 332 I am left with considerable disquiet regarding the credibility and reliability of SR’s evidence regarding the accused’s methods of teaching and behaviour towards students and her own relationship with the accused. Implausibility of account – reasons for remaining in accused’s ballet school and moving in with accused upon her return from New Zealand 333 There was a clear conflict between the evidence of SR and her mother EK on two material topics; (a) why SR remained in the accused’s ballet school (b) why SR moved in with the accused upon SR’s return from New Zealand. The conflict is not explicable by reason of faulty or imperfect recollection. 334 In evaluating the competing evidence, I have made findings regarding EK’s credibility and reliability. I formed a favourable impression of the evidence of EK. She did not appear to hold any bias towards her daughter or against the accused. She gave her evidence in an unvarnished and straightforward manner and seemed to be doing her best to recall the events she was asked to describe. Her memory was understandably imperfect, for example, she could not recall SR travelling to New Zealand for a holiday with the accused, but her memory of other relevant events and circumstances was good. 335 I accept EK’s evidence that she supported her daughter in her passion to study ballet despite misgivings about SR leaving school at the end of year 10. There was no suggestion in her testimony that doing so caused her any difficulty or inconvenience. That she took up a job picking mushrooms to fund her daughter’s stay in New Zealand demonstrates her willingness to support her daughter’s passion. I accept EK’s evidence that she and her husband paid for most of SR’s trip to Europe and that she and her husband continued to pay for some, but possibly not all of SR’s lessons until she went to Queensland. 336 When asked whether driving SR to ballet took up much of her time she answered, simply, ‘No, not really’. I find that EK was being truthful when she said this. I reject SR’s evidence that she was told by her mother that she hated picking her up from ballet. I accept EK’s evidence that she took SR to the ballet studio most of the time and that the accused started dropping SR home not long after she started at the accused’s ballet studio. 337 I also accept EK’s evidence that the accused would come in three times a week, have a coffee and stay for half an hour. I prefer EK’s evidence regarding the relationship she had with the accused over the evidence of SR on this topic. SR suggested that for a period of time the accused was her best friend and would be invited to barbeques, they would watch movies together and have dinner. -- 82 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 81 338 I accept EK’s evidence regarding her concern about the influence the accused was having on her daughter. However, I do not draw any sinister inference from EK’s stated concern about the influence the accused was having on SR and the amount of time they were spending together. I am satisfied on the totality of the evidence before me that SR spent most of her free time studying ballet with the accused and had no other interests or hobbies and would not play sport. She stopped attending school at the end of year 10 to study ballet full time. This would naturally be a concern to a caring mother. EK’s impression of the influence the accused was exerting over SR is consistent with the evidence of AP, YC and the statements made by the accused to Janet Kerr that some parents have no idea and only she could train the children into becoming prima dancers, and only if she could take complete charge of them. In these circumstances, I find it implausible that EK would have told SR that she hated having to drop her off and pick her up from ballet and was happy to be relieved of that obligation by SR sleeping at the accused’s house on weekends after motorcross season. 339 It was this concern that led EK to suggesting to SR that she attend a different ballet school. She said that SR did not like that suggestion. This evidence stands in stark contrast to SR’s evidence on this topic. SR gave evidence that she had a conversation with her parents about going to a different ballet school, but they were not prepared to travel that distance and said no. She did not recall any occasion when her parents gave her the opportunity to have a different ballet teacher. I reject SR’s evidence on this topic. I consider it likely that SR gave this evidence because if she acknowledged the reality of the situation, namely that she enjoyed being taught by the accused and rejected her mother’s suggestion to move schools, this would, in her mind, undermine her account of the accused’s sexual abuse of her. I am satisfied that SR was untruthful on this topic. 340 I find that the family trips to Kadina for motorcross on weekends during motorcross season were the genesis for the weekend sleepovers at the accused’s home. I accept SR’s evidence that she disliked intensely travelling to Kadina to watch her brother in motorcross and did not want to miss ballet lessons. I am not able to make a firm finding as to the inception of the arrangement or at whose behest it was, but I consider it likely that the topic was raised with the accused, and she offered the solution of SR sleeping over at her house. 341 I reject SR’s evidence that when motorcross season was over her parents told her they did not want to take her to ballet lessons and that is why she continued to stay over at the accused’s. I formed the distinct impression that SR was at pains to suggest that there were no alternative means to get to ballet other than to stay with the accused overnight. I find that SR stayed at the accused’s house because she enjoyed staying there and not because she had no other means of getting to ballet classes. I consider it likely that SR gave this evidence because if she acknowledged the reality of the situation, namely that she willingly stayed over at the accused’s house, this would, in her mind, undermine her account of the accused’s sexual abuse of her. I am satisfied that SR has not been truthful on this topic. -- 83 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 82 342 On SR’s account, by the time she went to New Zealand for 11 months she had been the victim of sustained sexual abuse at the hands of the accused which repulsed her. She feared the accused and felt powerless. When she returned from New Zealand, she was an adult and had lived away from the accused for a relatively lengthy period. SR said that she could not move back into her parents’ home upon her return from New Zealand because her parents had rented out her room to one of her brother’s friends. In cross-examination she refused to accept that it would have been preferable to be living with her parents rather than the accused, who had been sexually abusing her. SR sought to justify this by asserting that if she lived with her parents, she had no way of getting to ballet because her parents would not take her, she could not drive a car and she was too nervous to catch buses. I found that evidence implausible. 343 EK’s evidence on this topic was in direct conflict with that of SR. EK said that SR’s room was occupied by her son’s friend for a couple of months when SR was in New Zealand, but he had left, at EK’s request, before SR returned from New Zealand. EK was unequivocal in her evidence that SR’s room was unoccupied by the time SR returned. She said ‘definitely’. I am satisfied that EK’s memory on this issue was accurate and reliable and accords with commonsense. I also accept EK’s evidence that SR would come home on some weekends and stay overnight, sleeping in her bedroom. I accept EK’s evidence that on some occasions she and/or her husband picked up SR and brought her home. I reject SR’s evidence that she could not move home because her room was occupied. I find that SR was untruthful on that topic because she did not wish to acknowledge the reality of the situation, namely, that she wanted to live with the accused. 344 I find that SR was at pains to again paint a picture of there being no option other than to live with the accused because to acknowledge the reality of the situation – that it was her choice – in her mind undermined her account of the sexual abuse. I find that SR has been untruthful on that topic. Difficulties attending SR’s account of offending 345 There were aspects of SR’s account of specific occasions of sexual abuse that were undermined by prior inconsistent statements or contradicted by the evidence other witnesses whose evidence I have accepted as truthful and reliable, or otherwise implausible. 346 SR’s account of the number of students at the studio sleepover was at odds with YC’s evidence. I prefer the evidence of YC on this topic. She was able to nominate the four students who slept over and that they were the oldest students at the school. She had a good recollection of the sleeping arrangements, in particular where SR and the accused slept. Importantly, YC said there were only about 20 students when the studio opened and the youngest were 3 or 4 years old. She said the sleepover took place not long after the studio opened. It is unlikely that the sleepover would have involved students as young as 3 or 4. -- 84 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 83 347 An important aspect of SR’s account of the offending on this occasion was the number of children at the sleepover which she said was about 25. It was the number of children sleeping there which made going to the toilet difficult and was the reason SR proffered for leaving her sleeping bag unzipped, enabling the accused to touch her on the vagina. 348 I am satisfied that there were several proved prior inconsistent statements made by SR regarding what occurred on the first sleepover at the accused’s house in Eden Hills. They related to whether penetration occurred, the length of time over which the contact occurred and whether the accused had an orgasm: 1. In evidence SR said that the accused put SR’s hand on the accused’s vagina and made her touch it outside and inside it and there was penetration, not all the way in, but enough in. She agreed it was a bit more than skin on skin. The accused had an orgasm; the accused told her immediately afterwards that she had had an orgasm. SR was touching the accused for a little while, possibly 10-15 minutes and not as short as 5 or 10 seconds. Approximately at least half of her finger went inside the accused’s vagina. In her 2020 statement SR omitted to mention that she had touched the accused inside her vagina. In her August 2022 statement, she said, ‘When I said she grabbed my hand and put it on her, I mean she made me touch her vagina skin on skin but without penetration at first’. SR did not refer to any occasion of penetration in that statement. There was no mention of penetration in her 2025 statements. 2. There was no allegation in any of the four statements that the accused had an orgasm on this occasion. In SR’s 2020 statement to police, she said ‘she grabbed my hand and put it on her. She made me touch her vagina on the outside. She said that there was such a thing as an orgasm and told me what to do to give her one. She was telling me to rub her clitoris. She had my hand and was rubbing my finger on her hand, showing me what she wanted me to do. I then touched her the way she asked me to for a very short time and then I said that I needed the bathroom. I got up, went to the bathroom, I came back to bed, and she didn’t do anything further that night. We both went to sleep. The next morning, she never said anything about it’. 349 When confronted with these inconsistencies, SR said she could not bring herself to say everything at a time when she was falling apart having to ‘verbalise something’. In evaluating this explanation, I have had regard to the fact that SR was given the opportunity to check her statements and correct any errors. SR corrected an error in one of her statements relating to the existence of stairs in her family home. I regard these inconsistencies as material because they relate to an occasion SR said had stuck in her mind and was the first occasion of prolonged sexual abuse in the accused’s home. 350 SR gave evidence that the accused had an episiotomy scar. No other evidence was led to confirm or refute this assertion. This evidence is of no probative value. 351 The evidence of SR regarding the opportunities the accused had to sexually abuse her in her own bedroom was contradicted by the evidence of EK. SR gave evidence that the accused always came in for a coffee when she dropped her home. It was SR’s bedtime, and her father would come into her bedroom and wind up her clock and say goodnight. Her mother would yell goodnight from the loungeroom. -- 85 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 84 SR said the accused would always come in and tuck her in. Initially she would stay for about 15 minutes and sit on her bed and give her a pep talk. After a few weeks, the accused put her hands under the bed cover and into her knickers and rubbed her clitoris. Thereafter, time the accused spent in her bedroom touching her increased to the point that the accused was spending 45 minutes to an hour in there. 352 A prior inconsistent statement regarding the timing of the commencement of this abuse was proved. SR told police in 2020 that the abuse started after the best part of a year. She said that maybe it felt like a few weeks later. 353 EK said the accused came over three times a week for a coffee after dropping off SR. EK did not think that the accused ever went to say goodnight to SR, and she could not recall a time when the accused went to SR’s bedroom. EK said it would have been unusual for the accused to have gone into SR’s bedroom and said goodnight. When asked if the accused went into SR’s bedroom to say goodnight and stayed there for 45 minutes to an hour she said, ‘no that didn’t happen’. She said she would have noticed that. EK said PWK did not go into SR’s bedroom to say goodnight, SR would say goodnight to him in the lounge room. 354 I accept EK’s evidence on this topic. Despite the effluxion of time, I am satisfied that EK would have recalled the accused’s repeated absences for a period of 45 minutes in the family home after SR had gone to bed on the occasions the accused had dropped SR home and come into the house for a coffee. Her evidence on this topic was not undermined by her appropriate concession in re-examination that she did not know for sure if the accused ever went into SR’s bedroom. Acknowledging the possibility of the accused going into SR’s bedroom does not admit of, and is not equivalent to, an acknowledgment that this could have involved an absence of 45 minutes on a regular basis. EK’s evidence on the possibility of the latter was clear and unshaken – she said quite simply that that did not happen. 355 I am unable to accept or act upon SR’s account of the offending that she said took place in her bedroom. It cannot be reconciled with EK’s evidence, which I accept as truthful and reliable. 356 I accept EK’s evidence that SR told her she had sex education at school. However, it is not clear when this discussion took place, and it is possible that SR did not have any sexual education at the time she said the sexual activity with the accused commenced. I also accept EK’s evidence that she had discussed menstruation with SR before she started to menstruate. I found SR’s account on these two matters unconvincing. Accused’s record of interview 357 I formed the impression that the accused was doing her best to assist police by providing truthful answers to their questions. She responded to questions in a straightforward manner and was not evasive. She was plainly paying attention to what she was being asked because on the occasions that the interviewing officer recited her earlier answers incorrectly, conflated them or suggested she had -- 86 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 85 previously said something that she had not, she was able to identify this and correct it. 358 When there was a misunderstanding between her and the police about what she meant, she explained it. For example, it is clear to me that the accused’s use of the word ‘sexual orientation’ in her record of interview was intended to mean her lack of enjoyment of sex. She subsequently realised that this was understood by police as meaning her gender preference and that is why she said, ‘I might have slipped up and said the wrong thing there’. 359 In her interview, the accused did not attempt to downplay the opportunities for her to offend in the manner alleged. 360 I found the accused’s reaction to the allegations put to her and many of her responses compelling. Her visceral reaction (which included anger, disgust, bemusement and disbelief) to the sexual acts alleged against her struck me as genuine, as did her denial of the allegations. Whilst I accept that an emotional reaction to an allegation of a crime is not necessarily a reliable indicator that a person has been wrongly accused, in this case, I formed the view that the accused was genuinely horrified by the allegations because they were not true, and it was unfathomable to her that she could be accused of such conduct. She gave a believable explanation for why she would not commit the sexual acts alleged. Not all allegations the subject of evidence were put to her, but the bulk of the offending was put to her for her comment. 361 The accused volunteered information or made concessions that, on one view, were against her interest. At an early stage in the interview, she identified SR as the person she expected to be behind the complaint. She volunteered that there had been a romantic encounter with SR when she was an adult. Without hesitation, she admitted that she slept in the same bed as SR when she was a child. She said she went into SR’s bedroom to say goodnight to her and give her a peck on the cheek. 362 Although the accused was aware that SR had made ‘obscene’ allegations against her in the past, and that she was ‘supposed to have abused her somehow’ she clearly did not know the nature of the allegations the police were going to put to her. At one point she said, ‘just wondering what all this is about’ and wrongly speculated that the allegations related to her physical touching of SR during ballet class. 363 I have disregarded the answers of the accused in which she suggested reasons for SR to have made a false complaint. She had been told (wrongly and unfairly) by police that it was her ‘job to put an explanation to it other than the version of events’ the police had. Later she was asked (wrongly and unfairly) ‘Why do you think she’s saying these things?’ I infer and find that the unfair questioning led the accused to consider it was her ‘job’ to offer a reason why SR would lie. I am satisfied that she did not proffer the potential motives or reasons for a false account -- 87 of 88 -- [2025] SADC 13 86 for any other reason. I note that no motive to lie was put to SR in cross- examination. 364 The accused’s interview is not evidence on oath and has not been subjected to cross-examination. By the time of the interview, she had an understanding that SR had made obscene allegations of abuse against her in the past, which she had ignored. Nothing more is known about those allegations, but I infer from the accused’s responses when speculating about the reason for the police interview, that they did not bear any resemblance to the specific allegations put to her. 365 Notwithstanding these matters, based on the interview alone, there was nothing about the interview that caused me to doubt the accused’s denials of having engaged in the conduct then alleged against her, let alone reject those denials beyond a reasonable doubt. Conclusion 366 It is my task to determine whether the prosecution has proven the accused’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt based on the whole of the evidence. The whole of the evidence includes the accused’s record of interview. 367 The findings I have made regarding the evidence of SR and my acceptance of other evidence where it conflicts with her evidence, has left me in a position where I have a reasonable doubt regarding the credibility and/or reliability of material aspects of her evidence. The compelling nature of the accused’s denials have fortified that reasonable doubt. 368 It follows that I cannot be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused committed the offence with which she has been charged. Verdict 369 I find the accused not guilty. -- 88 of 88 --