Three-time Olympian sues sporting body over ‘false imputations of paedophilia'
Documents released by the NSW Supreme Court on Friday reveal Brendan Kerry, 30, is seeking damages and an order permanently restraining the sporting body from repeating the claims in the email, sent to members on May 16 last year.
Kerry was on the board of the NSW Ice Skating Association (NSWISA) until May 2024 but stood down when he received a lifetime coaching ban from the US Centre for SafeSport, which found he had engaged in 'sexual misconduct involving a minor'.
In the statement of claim, Kerry's lawyers say the finding by the US Centre for Safe Sport 'involved a female [in California] who was 17 years old when Kerry was 21'.
The age of consent in California is 18. In NSW, it is 16.
Since retiring from competition in 2022, Kerry had worked as a coach, including at Sydney's Macquarie Ice Rink, coaching several students to international competitions.
The email to members included the sanction handed down by the US Centre for SafeSport, and said the association had concerns for the 'physical and mental health, safety and wellbeing of all members, and how this situation affects our skating community'.
Kerry's lawyers say failing to include the girl's age in the email was a 'deliberate failure' of the association which knew 'that in NSW, and elsewhere in Australia, 'a minor' for the purposes of consent laws is a child 15 years old or younger'.
After news broke of the US ban in Australian media, Kerry denied sexual misconduct allegations and said he was innocent.
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