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Three-time Olympian Brendan Kerry knew he was breaking California law when he had sex with a 16- or 17-year-old girl at 21, telling her “he could go to jail”, according to documents filed in the NSW Supreme Court last month.
Kerry represented Australia in figure-skating and was a flag-bearer at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.
Brendan Kerry skates during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at Capital Indoor Stadium.Credit: Getty Images
The documents filed on August 15 in a defamation matter reveal the contents of the investigation which resulted in Kerry’s lifetime ban from coaching in the US, issued by the US Centre for SafeSport last year. There are no criminal charges against Kerry.
The sanction was first issued in May 2024. Kerry has denied sexual misconduct, stating that SafeSport were “sanctioning me for alleged violations that I did not commit”. He appealed the findings but lost on September 16, 2024.
In upholding the ban, SafeSport found Kerry had knowingly and illegally provided alcohol to a 16 or 17-year-old girl in California, that there was “some force to the sexual encounters”, and that he had asked the girl to keep their encounters a secret.
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The documents also allege that during the SafeSport investigation, Kerry admitted to having intercourse with the girl “10-15, maybe 20 times” over an 11-month period, while knowing she was 16 turning 17 while he was 21 or 22.
The documents allege that the girl “had not had any sexual experiences” before meeting Kerry.
Before their first sexual encounter, Kerry allegedly supplied her with a vodka mixed drink so that she was drunk and “felt that she had no control over what was taking place and no ability to say yes or no but went along with what [Kerry] wanted”.
During other incidents, the documents allege the SafeSport probe found the girl would repeatedly tell him “no” but Kerry would “hold her down and then she would stop struggling and be compliant”, sometimes leaving her with bruises on her legs.
During incidents of oral sex, the documents allege Kerry would “hold [her] head and force her down on his penis for oral sex. During such times [she] would close her eyes and could not breath [sic]”.
The allegations were contained in a written defence filed by the NSW Ice Skating Association in response to Kerry’s defamation suit against the organisation.
In the suit he brought against the organisation and two of its members, president Peter Lynch and secretary Fiona Kusilek, Kerry claims that the association falsely imputed he was a paedophile by neglecting to include the girl’s age in an email sent to its members after the ban was issued. The age of consent in California is 18 but in NSW, it is 16.
In the statement of claim, Kerry’s lawyers say the Safe Sport finding “involved a female [in California] who was 17 years old when Kerry was 21”. They 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”.
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The defence also alleges that Kerry had intercourse with a 14-year-old girl in Queensland when he was 17, and that a third alleged victim was assaulted by Kerry when she was incapacitated in a hotel room, leaving blood on the sheets afterwards. The third victim was an adult at the time of the incident.
The documents also state that Kusilek and Lynch believed they had obligations under the association’s constitution and member protection policy to inform its members of the sanction Kerry had received.
It also states they did “no more than repeat the relevant wording” used in the sanction itself and by the federal association, Ice Skating Australia (who is not a party in the case) in its media statement.
The association denies that the email conveyed, or was capable of conveying, that Kerry is a paedophile. However, it admits the email suggested he had engaged in sexual misconduct.
If the court finds the email did suggest Kerry is a paedophile, the association is seeking to rely on a range of defences, including public interest.
The case continues.
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