A paedophile water polo coach convicted of grooming a child for sex in Australia has been deported from the UK after the ABC found him working as a children’s lifeguard at a family water park.
An ABC investigation earlier this year had tracked coach Dean Carelse to the Butlin’s resort at Minehead in England’s south-west.
The South African-born former teacher was deported from Australia in late 2022 after serving time in a Queensland jail for several child sex abuse offences, including possessing child abuse material.
The 43-year-old was also charged with indecent treatment of children for covertly filming boys in his care in their swimmers on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Just months after he was sent back to his homeland, he surfaced in the UK in March 2023, where he passed a background check to work with children and got a job at Butlin’s Minehead.
He worked as a children’s lifeguard at Butlin’s for 10 months until he was fired after the ABC’s report.
The report also prompted English police to investigate how he came to be working with children in the UK.
A spokesperson for the Avon and Somerset Police told the ABC that “a 43-year-old man was arrested at Minehead on suspicion of knowingly entering the UK without leave and handed him over to the UK’s Border Force”.
The ABC understands Carelse was deported to South Africa in May.
“Foreign nationals who commit crimes here in the UK will face the full force of the law, including deportation at the earliest opportunity for those eligible,” a UK Home Office spokesperson said.
However, the department does not comment on individual cases.
A Butlin’s spokesperson said Carelse had “falsified” his information on his application and a mandatory screening check — which searches only for UK convictions — had come back clear.
The company, which runs three UK theme parks with more than 4,000 employees, has since changed how it vets overseas employees, the spokesperson said.
Queensland police documents show Carelse preyed on victims
Carelse is under investigation in South Africa, where he is believed to have been in an alleged paedophile ring in the country’s elite schools.
The investigation — codenamed Operation Nemo — is also looking at the suicide of a student at a South African boarding school in 2018.
The boy was allegedly abused by his water polo coach, who himself was a former student of Carelse. There is no suggestion Carelse was involved in the boy’s death.
Before moving to Australia, Carelse had been a prominent rugby and water polo coach, who gained fame as the high school coach of the first black Springboks captain Siya Kolisi.
Carelse was reportedly fired from a boys’ boarding school shortly before coming to Australia in the late 2010s.
He was arrested on the Sunshine Coast in early 2021 after a raid on his Mooloolaba home found more than 2,000 child exploitation images.
Investigators found material suggesting that offences were committed both in Australia and South Africa, according to documents obtained by the ABC.
Australian investigators identified 62 possible South African victims — most of them ex-students, according to South African police.
However, Carelse has not faced any charges in South Africa.
Queensland police investigation documents obtained by the ABC reveal how the paedophile preyed on his victims.
“He grooms his victims through gifting, praise, desensitisation and touch,” said a submission, filed by the investigating officer on July 2, 2021 — the day of Carelse’s second arrest.
“The forensic download of his phone provides evidence and demonstrates manipulation that the defendant uses to engage victim children.
The submission said police believed “the defendant is building relationships with children in Queensland”, that they feared would eventually allow him to “commit contact offences.”
In the same document, obtained under right to information laws, Carelse was described as having a “strong desire” to offend against children.
“Police suspect that the defendant will offend against a child should he have access. The defendant has held a position of trust and authority as a [redacted] he has the ability to communicate with children and his actions show he has a strong desire to offend against them,” the investigating officer wrote.
The documents obtained by the ABC show Carelse categorised photos and conversations with his victims by their names.
He was referred to Queensland police’s anti-paedophile Taskforce ARGOS on March 16, 2021, for uploading child exploitation material to the internet.
Queensland police raided his home four days later.
The Queensland charges against Carelse include 14 counts of indecent treatment for filming children in his care in their swimmers at a swimming carnival at Peregian Springs on the Sunshine Coast in 2019 and grooming the 13-year-old child of friends.
He was also charged with forging a signature to make the child he groomed the benefactor of his will and superannuation, and stealing uniforms, towels and sport equipment from his employer.
Posted , updated