End Cruelty
Yuffie butter!
Naked photos of girls sent to dance teacher Grant Davies to help them, mother says
MAZOE FORDUPDATED ABOUT 11 HOURS AGO
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VIDEO 7:33
Whistleblower for Sydney dance teacher labelled liar before abuse came to light
VIEW TRANSCRIPT7.30
A mother who sent photographs and video of her two naked daughters to their dance teacher has told an inquiry that she feared he would destroy their dancing prospects.
told the inquiry earlier that on the Broken Hill trip Davies got into bed with one of his daughters and exposed himself to her.
The father also said his daughter told him that on a number of occasions Davies asked her to take her clothes off in the studio, sometimes photographing and hugging her.
The daughters told their father that Davies "wanted to see their bodies so that he could connect with them and make them stars".
While the father reported Davies in 2013, he told the inquiry he had his suspicions about Davies as early as 2010 when he discovered a video of his daughter in a G-string with a feather boa, but he was told by his wife not to be concerned.
Davies was arrested in May 2013 and the mother was arrested about six months later.
She told the commission on Tuesday Davies phoned her before his arrest and said she needed to "keep the kids' mouths shut" and to delete all of her messages.
She served 18 months in prison and is now on parole.
"The impact on my life and family was catastrophic," the mother said.
"I am ashamed that I will be known as a child sex offender and will be put on a register and monitored. I was ashamed to be put in prison."
Whistleblower says she was called a liar
A former acrobatics instructor at RG Dance, Tracie-Marie Siepel, told the hearing that child pornography was found on his computer in 2002 but Davies said someone else had downloaded it.
Also that year, she recalled Davies touching students inappropriately.
"I would never touch a child — not even my nephew — in the way that Grant Davies touched children in front of me. And that was always in the back of my mind," she told the inquiry.
Ms Siepel told 7:30 she was ridiculed and called a liar by others in the dance school community after she reported Davies' behaviour to the authorities.
"It was all too easy for people to call me a liar. I was never a 'whistleblower', I was a 'trouble maker' and those children were never 'victims', they were just 'bratty little liars' who couldn't cope with not getting the front row," she said.
"It's very difficult at that point to only blame Grant because there were so many people in that environment that were enabling him and enabling his behaviour and almost worshipping and encouraging that behaviour.
"And totally unwilling to listen or even observe the warning signs."
Ms Siepel told 7:30 she witnessed Davies grooming parents as well as children.
"Grant would suddenly be in the waiting room with a particular parent and be spending a lot of time with that parent, complimenting them, complimenting their child, then within a couple of weeks that child was the new favourite and was getting the extra attention in class and being promised the world and getting extra motivation," she said.
Davies pleaded guilty last September to 47 child sex offences against children between the ages of nine and 14.
He is expected to be sentenced in May.
POSTED YESTERDAY AT 8:18PM
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Reminds me of that nikka from Donnie Darko
MAZOE FORDUPDATED ABOUT 11 HOURS AGO
Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp
VIDEO 7:33
Whistleblower for Sydney dance teacher labelled liar before abuse came to light
VIEW TRANSCRIPT7.30
A mother who sent photographs and video of her two naked daughters to their dance teacher has told an inquiry that she feared he would destroy their dancing prospects.
told the inquiry earlier that on the Broken Hill trip Davies got into bed with one of his daughters and exposed himself to her.
The father also said his daughter told him that on a number of occasions Davies asked her to take her clothes off in the studio, sometimes photographing and hugging her.
The daughters told their father that Davies "wanted to see their bodies so that he could connect with them and make them stars".
While the father reported Davies in 2013, he told the inquiry he had his suspicions about Davies as early as 2010 when he discovered a video of his daughter in a G-string with a feather boa, but he was told by his wife not to be concerned.
Davies was arrested in May 2013 and the mother was arrested about six months later.
She told the commission on Tuesday Davies phoned her before his arrest and said she needed to "keep the kids' mouths shut" and to delete all of her messages.
She served 18 months in prison and is now on parole.
"The impact on my life and family was catastrophic," the mother said.
"I am ashamed that I will be known as a child sex offender and will be put on a register and monitored. I was ashamed to be put in prison."
Whistleblower says she was called a liar
A former acrobatics instructor at RG Dance, Tracie-Marie Siepel, told the hearing that child pornography was found on his computer in 2002 but Davies said someone else had downloaded it.
Also that year, she recalled Davies touching students inappropriately.
"I would never touch a child — not even my nephew — in the way that Grant Davies touched children in front of me. And that was always in the back of my mind," she told the inquiry.
Ms Siepel told 7:30 she was ridiculed and called a liar by others in the dance school community after she reported Davies' behaviour to the authorities.
"It was all too easy for people to call me a liar. I was never a 'whistleblower', I was a 'trouble maker' and those children were never 'victims', they were just 'bratty little liars' who couldn't cope with not getting the front row," she said.
"It's very difficult at that point to only blame Grant because there were so many people in that environment that were enabling him and enabling his behaviour and almost worshipping and encouraging that behaviour.
"And totally unwilling to listen or even observe the warning signs."
Ms Siepel told 7:30 she witnessed Davies grooming parents as well as children.
"Grant would suddenly be in the waiting room with a particular parent and be spending a lot of time with that parent, complimenting them, complimenting their child, then within a couple of weeks that child was the new favourite and was getting the extra attention in class and being promised the world and getting extra motivation," she said.
Davies pleaded guilty last September to 47 child sex offences against children between the ages of nine and 14.
He is expected to be sentenced in May.
POSTED YESTERDAY AT 8:18PM
---
Reminds me of that nikka from Donnie Darko
