Graham James Hockey Coach- Junior ice hockey coach and convicted sex offender Graham James has pleaded guilty to sexual assaults involving two of his former players, including NHL star Theoren Fleury. The move marks another chapter in what has become one of Canadian ice hockey’s darkest stories. James entered the plea in a Winnipeg courtroom Wednesday via video link from Montreal.
The disgraced coach was originally facing nine charges of sexual assault involving three players spanning 1979 to 1994, but only pleaded guilty to charges involving two. The names of the two other players are protected under a court-ordered publication ban. The 59-year-old James, who has been out on bail for almost a year and living in Montreal, will appear in Winnipeg in February to be sentenced.
He has already served a 3 1/2-year prison sentence for abusing other former players he coached, including former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy.
The most recent charges came after Fleury published an autobiography in which he described the abuse he suffered.
In the book “Playing With Fire” the former Calgary Flames star told of how James recruited him at 13 to play in Winnipeg and then in Moose Jaw. He said James would visit and abuse him on the road—fondling him or performing oral sex. James obtained Fleury’s silence by threatening the youngster’s dream of one day playing in the NHL.
Fleury detailed how James took him and Kennedy to Disneyland, where he said James would take turns molesting them in motel rooms. James pleaded guilty to the charges involving Kennedy in 1997, but Fleury stayed silent until 2009.
The agreed statement of facts read out in the Winnipeg courtroom by Crown Colleen McDuff said James’s abuse of Fleury started in September 1983 and lasted until August 1985.
The statement said the encounters began with James fondling Fleury while he slept and escalated to the coach performing oral sex. The statement indicated it was much the same with the second victim. Those attacks took place between 1989 and 1994.
At a news conference in Calgary, Fleury criticized the justice system for how it handled the James case.
“Graham James pled guilty years ago, and then he was granted a pardon, after he was found in Mexico and brought back to Canada on these charges,” he said. “He was given bail … this is what the mighty Canadian justice system allowed a previously convicted child rapist to do.”
Fleury said a convicted pedophile like James doesn’t change.
“I believe what people show me—he showed me he was and is a rapist. There is no changing a monster like that.”
He criticized the fact James remains on bail and suggested he should serve a lengthy sentence.
“It took me 27 years to get comfortable in my own skin,” Fleury said. “To me, that’s a pretty decent sentence.”
Both Kennedy and Fleury spiraled downward as adults despite their professional success on the ice. They were both divorced, and both abused drugs and alcohol.
Read more: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=ap-grahamjames-abuse
