Swim coach Scott Volkers charged with child sex abuse

Scott Volkers. Photo / Getty Images.

Former star swimming coach Scott Volkers has been charged with multiple child sex offences.

The 59-year-old was arrested this morning by detectives from the Queensland police child abuse and sexual crime squad, who arrived at his Sunshine Coast home just before 8am.

Following three hours at Maroochydore police station, he was charged with five historic offences of indecent treatment of a child.

It marks the latest stage in a saga of controversy stretching back a decade and a half for the coach, whose proteges included Olympians Susie O'Neill and Samantha Riley.

Volkers is due to appear at Maroochydore Magistrates Court on November 13.

He told media yesterday that he will be fighting the charges.

He claimed he had been ''victimised", saying: "It's been 15 years I've been subject to this."

But the charges were welcomed by women who have made allegations against Volkers in the past.

Simone Boyce told 9 News: "This needs to go to a court. This needs to be decided by a jury and that's all we've ever wanted."

Volkers has only recently returned to Queensland from Brazil, where he had been working as a coach for several years.

He was investigated in 2002 as part of a year-long police probe amid allegations of improper dealings with a child.

Further allegations were aired at the 2014 royal commission into sexual abuse by three former swimming pupils, including Ms Boyce, that they were allegedly molested as girls aged 12 to 18 in the 1980s.

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In 2009, the Queensland Child Guardian refused Volkers a blue card to work with children.

But he remained on the payroll of leading swimming institutions until 2010, when he went to Brazil.

As recently as 2012, Swimming Queensland described him as "a masterful coach".

Volkers was denied accreditation for the Rio Olympics last year following lobbying by Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates.