The date has been set for the retrial of an Australian swimming instructor who is facing 21 sexual abuse charges.
Kyle Daniels, accused of sexually touching young girls while teaching swimming lessons at the Mosman Swim Centre in New South Wales, will face a retrial in August in Sydney, with the trial expected to last six to eight weeks.
Daniels was arrested in 2019 and at one point faced up to 59 charges, though 33 were dropped before his initial trial.
In November 2020, a jury acquitted Daniels on five of the charges, including sexual intercourse with a child, but could not come to an agreement on the remaining 21 charges and were ultimately dismissed.
Daniels pleaded not guilty to all 26 charges.
When the matter returned to court in February 2021, it was announced that Daniels would face a retrial in October.
However, due to the backlog of cases caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Judge Kara Shead pushed back Daniels’ retrial to August 2022 during his court date on October 11. That date was confirmed this week, according to The Daily Telegraph.
During the first trial, Daniels said he had “absolutely not” touched any of the girls inappropriately. His lawyers argued that there were inconsistencies in the girls’ stories, and criticized the officer in charge of the investigation, saying she used leading questions in interviews with the girls and altered wording on a police statement.