Grace Tame Feared for Her Life After Alleged Social Media Posts by Childhood Abuser

Grace Tame, a former Australian of the Year, told Hobart Magistrates Court that she feared for her life after learning of social media posts allegedly made by her childhood abuser, Nicolaas Ockert Bester. Tame gave evidence at a hearing for Bester, who was accused of sexually abusing her in 2010 when she was his 15-year-old student.

Court documents revealed that Bester allegedly maintained a 'revenge' folder containing pictures and videos of Tame, discovered after a 2022 police raid. Bester, 74, was charged in 2022 with three counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass, or offend, to which he pleaded not guilty. The prosecution alleges he made public social media posts directed at Tame, who advocated for survivors of sexual abuse.

Three Twitter messages from the account NicoBester3 in 2022 were read in court. All referenced Tame's school email address, which had been used by Bester to message her during the abuse. One post stated, 'At last I will come for (the email address).' Another mentioned Bester 'coming' like Donald Trump and Tommy Robinson, with a countdown of '10 weeks to go.' A third post read, 'here it comes! Only four weeks to go! The good old comeuppance on its way (the email address).'

Tame testified that she became aware of the posts incrementally and realized the time references were a countdown to her book's release. She stated the posts took her back to the abuse she experienced in his school classroom and that she was 'horrified, terrified and quite disturbed.' She interpreted them as a 'very real commitment to follow through with some kind of public-facing plan to inflict harm upon me.'

She expressed fear that Bester's mention of her childhood email was a threat to release sexualized messages exchanged between them during the grooming period. 'I was also legitimately scared for my life,' Tame said, recalling Bester's past accounts of killing people during his army service. 'This is a man who had psychologically tortured and repeatedly raped me. I did not need to imagine his capacity to cause harm.'

Tame stated that the alleged posts prompted her to increase security for her nationwide book tour and that she experienced suicidal thoughts, describing herself as being 'close to rock bottom.'

Tasmania Police Constable Declan Gillett informed the court that a folder of media coverage of Tame, titled 'wraak' (Afrikaans for revenge), was found on Bester's portable hard drives. An outgoing email from Bester's account to Bettina Arndt in 2017 was also found, containing an attached document with purported Facebook messages between Bester and Tame during the 2010 abuse. Tame indicated that discovering this email in 2022 would have been devastating and potentially driven her towards suicide.

Bester, who has dementia, was previously deemed unfit to stand trial for medical reasons. A special hearing can result in a finding of not guilty, not guilty on mental health grounds, or that a finding of not guilty cannot be made; a guilty verdict is not possible. Bester observed the hearing via video link.

In 2011, Bester was sentenced to two years and 10 months in jail for abusing Tame and possessing child exploitation material. He received a four-month jail sentence in 2016 for producing child exploitation material after discussing the abuse online.