The former school teacher who sexually abused former Australian of the Year Grace Tame has been deemed unfit to stand trial in the Hobart Magistrates Court.
Nicolaas Ockert Bester was charged with three counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence in 2022.
It is alleged that Mr Bester made public posts on Twitter, now X, in relation to and directed at Ms Tame that a reasonable person “would regard as being, in all circumstances, menacing”.
He pleaded not guilty to all three charges in 2023.
Mr Bester was sentenced to jail in 2011 for sexually abusing Ms Tame and possessing child exploitation material.
At the time of the crime, he was a school teacher and Ms Tame was a 15-year-old student.
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In the court this morning, Magistrate Andrew McKee said he accepted the joint submission from prosecution and defence that Mr Bester was unfit to stand trial.
Magistrate McKee cited medical evidence provided to the court earlier this year in handing down his determination.
The court was previously told Nicolaas Bester has vascular dementia. (ABC News: Scout Wallen)
“I therefore find that Mr Bester is unfit to stand trial and will not become fit to stand trial in the next 12 months,” he said.
In 2024, Mr Bester’s lawyer, Todd Kovacic, told the court his client had vascular dementia and his fitness to face a contested hearing was an issue.
Speaking outside the court later, Mr Kovacic said the magistrate’s decision was the “only choice the court had”.
“We’ve been here for a few years now trying to sort this out,” he said.
“Everything could happen more efficiently in a perfect world but it happened as expeditiously as we could to get it to happen.”
Magistrate Mckee said the matter would return to court for a “special hearing” in July, but a directions hearing would first take place in April.