Grace Tame confronts abuser’s online threats during special court hearing

Grace Tame, the 2021 Australian of the Year, gave evidence in a special Hobart Magistrates Court hearing concerning her former maths teacher, Nicolaas Ockert Bester, who abused her when she was 15. Prosecutors presented three 2022 Twitter posts from the account NicoBester3 that referenced her school email address and included countdowns of ten and four weeks, which Tame linked to the impending launch of her memoir. She said the messages triggered terror, reminded her of the classroom abuse, and made her fear that Bester might release sexualised communications from their grooming period, prompting heightened security for her national book tour and suicidal thoughts.

Tasmania Police Constable Declan Gillett testified that a folder named “wraak” containing media coverage of Tame was found on Bester’s hard drives, along with a 2017 email to men’s-rights activist Bettina Arndt that attached alleged historic Facebook exchanges. Bester, charged in 2022 with three counts of using a carriage service to menace, has pleaded not guilty and was ruled medically unfit to stand trial due to dementia, limiting the court to a possible not-guilty or mental-health verdict.

He observed the proceedings via video link from an undisclosed location. The case underscores the enduring impact of historic sexual abuse and the challenges of prosecuting aged offenders.