Richard "Dick" Caine, a former Australian swim coach, has been found guilty of 39 acts of sexual assault, including rape, on six young female swimmers in his charge decades ago.

Now in his late 70s and in palliative care, Caine will be sentenced on December 6. The crimes of which he has now been convicted took place at the Carss Park swimming pool in Sydney's south, at Caine's home and in his car in the 1970s and 1980s, prosecutors stated in evidence.

That evidence given by the victims was reliable, despite the significant amount of time that had passed since the incidents, NSW District Court Judge Paul McGuire found. In handing down his verdict, he said: "I am satisfied that each of the elements of each of the offences has been established beyond reasonable doubt."