The ex-wife of disgraced dance coach Grant Davies has told of her horror at discovering evidence on his computer he was sexually grooming children.
The Sydney primary school teacher, whose name has been suppressed for legal reasons, took the material to police, which resulted in her then husband’s arrest and conviction.
She also revealed she had endured abuse, intimidation and violence from Davies during their 14-year marriage, while speaking at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this week.
However, she said she’d never suspected he would hurt children until the sickening moment she found sexually explicit messages and photographs on his computer one night in 2013.
Tearfully, the woman told of her shock and revulsion at what she saw.
In a statement tendered to the hearing, she said: “The content of the messages was sexually explicit. There were messages in which Grant was saying, ‘Delete the messages so your mum doesn’t see’ and references to kissing.
“It seemed to be that Grant was grooming [an unnamed child]. I also found various photos of [the same child] wearing a G-string and posing for the camera.”
“There were also messages that suggested that [the child’s] mother was involved, by sending Grant photos of [her children] .. receiving messages from Grant saying he had been turned on by the photos.”
“I felt sick to my stomach. I was shocked and horrified.”
She immediately began printing and copying the material as evidence.
In 2006, an apprehended violence order (AVO) had been taken out by police to to protect Davies’ then wife and their then baby daughter following a violent rage by Davies at their home.
In 2012, she requested another AVO after an argument resulted in him allegedly pushing her to the floor and dragging her across the room.
“I was afraid of Grant,” she said.
“I was afraid for my personal safety.. [or] to do anything that would aggravate him.”
In a recurring theme at the hearing, friends and family appeared reluctant to challenge Davies, the charismatic but temperamental co-director of RG Dance in Sydney’s inner-west.
When they did question his conduct, such as his familiarity with students, he would put them down and dismiss their concerns.
He was also described as “controlling”, “attention-seeking”, “charming” and “arrogant”. At the dance school, he was “‘King of the Kids’, trying to be everyone’s best friend,” his ex-wife said.
After discovering the sexually explicit material on his computer, Davies’ ex-wife printed as much as she could until her printer ran out of ink and then copied them onto a thumb drive.
She brought it over to the dance studio to show Davies’ sister Rebecca, who was co-director of the school and agreed her brother should be reported to police.
Davies’ ex-wife and Rebecca’s then partner Alison Carlsen subsequently retrieved Davies’ computer and took it to police.
Rebecca, who also appeared at the royal commission, said her family had been “in complete shock” at the material Davies’ ex-wide had found.
However, in retrospect, she conceded she should have done more to pick up on red flags about her brother’s behaviour in the decade before 2013.
There had been complaints about his lack of appropriate boundaries and allegations of sexually explicit communication with students.
In 2007, police executed a search warrant as part of an investigation. Davies, however, had disposed of his computer two months previously.
It was the actions of Davies’ ex-wife that led to his conviction. He was arrested in May 2013 and charged with 63 child sex offences.
Last year, he pleaded guilty to offences including sexual intercourse with a child and indecent assault against nine victims aged from nine to 15.
He is due to be sentenced in May.
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