Ex-coach found guilty of sex-related assaults on 5 teenage boys decades ago

An ex-Mountie has been found guilty of indecently assaulting fiveteenage boys when he was a minor hockey and baseball coach in the B.C. Interior in the1970sand '80s.

Alan John Davidson, now 62, was acquitted on two other countsof indecent assault,according to a B.C. Supreme Court ruling posted onlineMonday.

Seven men, all now in their50s,testifiedlast year in B.C. against the mantheyonce saw as a "mentor," "friend" andin one case "a big brother."

One man in his50stold Justice Sheri Ann Doneganhow his minor hockey coach assaulted him during a camping trip when he was a Grade 8 student in the1970s.

Then 13 or 14, hesaid what happened after he was alone with Davidson left him"shaking like a leaf."

Retelling the story 30 years later, the judge noted, made the man start to shake again.

Davidson waschargedwith the indecent assaults in 2014aftera man approachedBurnabyRCMP.

The mantold police Davidson hadsexually assaulted himwhile he was living and playing hockeyin a small town north ofKamloops. He said it waspossible other players on his team had also been attacked.

Former athletes contacted

After the complaint was lodged,RCMPlaunched an investigationinvolvingcommunities in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewanthe three provinces in which Davidson had lived and worked over the last 30 years.

Crown counsel said investigators contacted all ofDavidson's former athletes to askabout the coach. Charges were laid after eight menfrom the B.C. Interiorcame forward.

The attackshappened when Davidson was alone with the boys between 1976 and 1982, according to thejudgment. The teens ranged in age from 13 to 16 at the time.

The men told court they knew Davidson through hockey or baseball but also as an auxiliaryRCMPofficer andin some casesa close family friend.

One man testified he looked up to Davidson as someone "larger than life."

Thejudgmentsaid Davidson assaulted the boys after taking them on fishing trips or visits toa local golf course, renting motels or staying in the coach's camper. Healso tagged along onfamily camping trips and to out-of-town tournaments. One year, he stayed in a victim's home and shared his bedroom after his unwitting parents invited the coach to stay.

Some men testified their parents allowed Davidson to take them on overnight trips because he was seen as a mentor.

One boy said he was so excited to have been invited on one of Davidson's camping trips thathe practised fishing forweeks.

In their testimony, the men said Davidson molested them, performed oral sex and asked the teens to perform oral sex once he had them alone for the night. In at least two cases, he plied the underage boyswith alcohol.

Onesaid Davidson, who laterbecame a fully fledgedRCMPofficer who worked in several communities in Alberta and Saskatchewan,attempted rape.

They all told the court they felt"confused ... shocked ... mortified" and "scared." Several said they just "froze."

Issue of consent

The main issue during the trial was whether the men consented to the sexual activity. Before 1983, the age of consent in Canada was 14.

Doneganruled that five of theteens hadn't consented,even though some of them were 14 or older and hadn't explicitly said "no."

She found that their resistance,confusion andsilence should have indicated their lack of consent to an adult who held a position of power and authority over the boys.

In herjudgment,Doneganwrote that Davidson was "reckless or wilfully blind to the fact that [the victim] was not consenting."

"[The victim]was a small, bullied vulnerable young adolescent," the judgesaid in reference to one of the counts. "He looked up to his hockey coach as an authority member and mentor ...he was excited to have been invited on a trip by someone of [Davidson's] stature."

When presented with the victims' testimony, Davidson apologized to some of them.

"I pray you can start over and have some closure," he said in one case via video.

"You looked up to me and I let you down. Please move forward," he said to another.

The former coach was acquitted of two other charges: one because the teen, although "confused," had verbally consented at the time of the alleged offence. The other acquittal was due tovague evidence, the judgment said.

The eighth charge laid in 2014 was stayed.

The charge of indecently assaulting another man or woman no longer exists in the Criminal Code. Davidson was charged with the old offence because it was the one in place at the time of the attacks.

Davidson is scheduled to be sentenced onApril 6.He's also facingthree more counts of sexual assaultin Saskatchewan.