WARNING: Graphic Content
The twisted details of the sexual abuse and fetishisation of young boys by a western Sydney soccer coach, who abused the trust of seven children close to him, has been revealed in court for the first time.
Grant Harden, of St Clair, confessed to abusing his relationship with young children and their parents as he faced Downing Centre District Court via video link from Long Bay jail for sentence on Thursday wearing his prison greens.
The 31-year-old confirmed his guilty plea to 179 charges relating to the sexual abuse of seven young children, which he then filmed and shared in a global online network.
Harden was initially arrested in May 2020 and charged with 44 child sexual abuse offences, including multiple counts of sexual intercourse with a child under ten years.
He was then hit with further charges for sexually abusing young children and filming it for online distribution, as well as bestiality offences.
The court heard Harden, who was 27 at the time of the offending, had given at least two of the boys melatonin before abusing them, filming it and sharing it on various applications including KiK and Snapchat.
When questioned on whether he used melatonin to facilitate his offending, Harden said the child’s mother got it from the doctor “because he was having trouble sleeping”.
Four of the children were depicted in child abuse material which Harden had made while they were sleeping.
“You were touching their penises, masturbating them and holding their sleeping hand on your penis,” Crown prosecutor Sara Gul told the court.
Harden told the court he first became “aware” of his attractions to male children when he was just 13, but by the time he was 27 was “committing full blown child pornography and committing sexual intercourse with a young child”.
He was in a committed, long-term relationship when he began offending and sharing the material.
Harden’s username on Snapchat was “Baddad03” and he had a PIN-protected folder on his Samsung that contained about 3500 images and videos of child abuse material called “really sick stuff”.
The court heard Harden bought one of the boys, referred to in court as “child number one” for legal reasons, gifts in exchange for sexual favours.
At times, that same boy would say “ow, what are you doing?” the court heard.
Harden said he “didn’t feel good, to an extent” about the boy being in pain but “wanted to make it as enjoyable for him as I could”.
“I would try and change it up and do something different to make it feel better,” he told the court.
The courtxjmtzyw heard the sexual abuse on child one would have continued had Harden not been caught by police.
“He would ask me to touch him and most times I would and he wouldn’t touch me,” Harden said.
“Unless he said he wanted it to stop, I wouldn’t have stopped.”
The mother of one of the young boys confronted Harden in court on Thursday, saying her son will never have the childhood he deserves because it was “annihilated” by the 31-year-old.
The heartbroken woman sobbed as she told the soccer coach his crimes had a devastating impact on her son’s life but he “doesn’t even know why”.
“He was so confused and upset, always asking me why I was so upset,” the woman said in her chilling victim impact statement.
“Because of what you did to him I have no trust left for anyone, he no longer goes on play dates, he doesn’t go to birthdays or sleepovers.”
“He won’t have the childhood he deserves because you annihilated that trust.”
The woman said her relationship with her son was now strained because she wouldn’t let the nine-year-old see friends outside school.
“He gets upset and sad that he doesn’t get to see his friends outside of school … I won’t allow him to be at risk again,” she said.
“He’s a very lonely little boy.”
Harden expressed remorse for his actions and said he will never be able to show “how sorry he is”.
The 31-year-old said he was struggling with a constant “internal” struggle about what he describes as an “addiction” and was relieved when he was arrested.
“There was a constant internal fight within me knowing what I was doing was wrong but I couldn’t stop,” he said.
“It was like an addiction but I felt like I kept being dragged back in.”
The sentence hearing was adjourned to Monday for submissions.
