What happened to Paul Frost? The MasterChef finalist jailed for 32 years after abusing 11 children he taught while working as a swimming coach.
A MasterChef Australia finalist who sexually abused 11 children he coached at a swimming school has been jailed for a minimum of 24 years.
Paul Douglas Frost learned his fate at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Thursday, more than four years after he was arrested.
Here’s what we know about the life and crimes of Paul Frost, the MasterChef finalist turned swimming coach.
Who is Paul Frost?
Paul Douglas Frost is a chef and a television personality best known for appearing on the Network Ten show’s first season, MasterChef Australia.
Frost made it to the finals of the show in 2009 but had been unable to capitalise on the attention that appearance brought him.
A food venture Frost started with his wife failed, forcing him into bankruptcy in 2016. The couple separated in 2017/2018 and divorced in 2021/2022, per Daily Mail.
After his arrest, Frost had been sacked from his casual jobs at the University of NSW and Malabar Public School in Sydney’s south-east.
The divorced father-of-two learned only when he was 40 that his real biological father was a man he had considered a family friend.
Frost believed for most of his life his father was Ian Thorpe’s swimming coach Doug Frost, who guided Ian Thorpe to three of his five Olympic gold medals.
He has been convicted of sexually abusing 11 former swimming students during the 1990s and 2000s.
Frost was arrested at the home he shared with wife Ivana, who was then furniture and homeware giant IKEA’s national food manager, at Sylvania in Sydney’s south in September 2019.
What did Paul Frost do?
Paul Frost is alleged to have committed 43 offenses over a decade against children.
Frost was arrested in September 2019 at his Sylvania home.
The former MasterChef Australia finalist was first charged with only 10 offences, but further allegations were raised as police investigated his crimes
He has been proven guilty of sexually abusing 11 young children – 10 boys and one girl – under his care at a swimming school in Sydney’s southwest between 1996 and 2009.
It includes several counts of sexual intercourse with a child under his care, multiple charges of aggravated indecent assault of a person under 16, and grooming children for sexual activity
His youngest victim was nine or 10 when she was first violated, the oldest a boy whom Frost had molested until the age of 16.
He normalised talking about sex among these children and other teenagers he was coaching, encouraged sexual activity both with and between them, and engaged in graphic acts inside the changing rooms.
Judge Huggett described Frost’s crimes as “opportunistic, impulsive and spontaneous”, and said he “deliberately created a culture which facilitated his offending”.
One of the victims told the court: “Paul had built a culture of these types of things being normal.”
He revealed as a boy he went along with discussing sexual things with Frost as he wanted to be one of his “cool kids”.
He added: “I thought talking about that … was just what people did. I thought it was normal because he built that kind of atmosphere around us.”
Frost also reportedly commented on one young student’s “bubble butt”, encouraged another to watch the sexually explicit TV show Sex Life – and openly discussed the size of a boy’s genitalia.
He even encouraged one student to watch pornography on his office computer with him.
After assaulting another boy, Frost drove him home and said: “You know we can’t tell anyone this else we’ll both get into trouble.”
Judge Huggett revealed Frost had shown no apparent concern about his vile crimes being uncovered that led leading up to his sentence.
She said: “He escaped justice for decades and enjoyed life in the community free of the opprobrium and punishment for his crimes.”
Ivana Frost, the abuser’s wife and a senior executive at Australian Ikea, filed an affidavit to Sutherland Local Court on Thursday.
In the affidavit, she wrote that she was in “shock and disbelief” when she learned about the serious allegations against her husband – and pleaded for him to be allowed home while awaiting trial.
She told the court they had been married since November 2001.
Where is Paul Frost now?
Judge Sarah Huggett sentenced Frost to a maximum term of 32 years for committing 43 offences over more than a decade against children as young as 10.
Frost’s earliest possible release date is June 3, 2047.
Frost initially faced 10 charges including aggravated sexual assault of a child under 16.
When told of the allegations against him that day Frost had dropped to the ground and told police: ‘That’s disgusting’.
Frost initially faced 10 charges including aggravated sexual assault of a child under 16, but was eventually convicted of 43 offences.
Each of those offences attracts a maximum penalty of between five and ten years in prison. Two further counts of grooming a child for unlawful sexual activity have a maximum penalty of 12 years.
A jury deliberated for almost a fortnight before finding Frost guilty.
Frost, who had been on bail, was handcuffed and taken into custody where he has been ever since.