The coach of Australia’s female indoor hockey team has been banned from supervising children in sports activities “at any level” by a WA court as a condition of her bail, after being charged with five sex offences.

Lauren Austin, 39, appeared in the Magistrates Court in Fremantle on Friday afternoon on one count of sexual penetration of a child over 16 under her authority, one count of sexual penetration without consent, and three counts of indecent dealing with a child under their supervision.

WA Police say the allegations relate to one victim, who was underage during some of the offences.

Accompanied by her lawyer and an older woman, Ms Austin spoke only to acknowledge her name and that she understood the charges.

The police prosecutor told the court he wanted to introduce another “quite important” bail condition that was overlooked when she was initially charged, that she “not engage in any community activity relating to the supervision or authority of children, including as a sports coach at any level”.

After a brief adjournment to take instruction, Ms Austin’s lawyer Deearnah Truran-Fowler did not oppose the additional bail condition.

It’s expected Ms Austin would be allowed to resume working with children again if acquitted of the charges.

The court heard Ms Austin currently has three other bail conditions in place but they were not read to the court.

The ABC contacted Hockey Australia about her employment status and was told the organisation had taken “provisional action” against Ms Austin “prohibiting her involvement in hockey at any level in Australia until at least the resolution of legal proceedings”.

“We remain committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity in our sport.”

Hockey Australia had earlier removed her name from their website and it now says the female team’s head coach position is “TBC”.

Ms Austin was also appointed Hockey WA’s under-18s girls coach in April and according to match listings was coaching interstate games as recently as July.

Ms Austin played for Australia at the 2007 and 2018 World Cups before retiring due to the demands of balancing her own cleaning business and maintaining an international hockey career.

Ms Austin declined to comment outside court. 

She is due back in court on October 4.

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