Former coach, ex-Mountie gets 6 years for sex-related assaults

A former youth sports coach and police officer was sentenced Tuesdayfor indecent assaults and sexual assaults in B.C. and Saskatchewan dating back decades.

Alan John Davidson received a six-yearprison term, minus 15 days for time served, for seven sex-relatedoffences.

Davidson was convicted in January of indecently assaulting five teenage boys in B.C. in the 1970s and1980sas a youth hockey and baseball coach.

In March, hepleaded guilty totwo counts of sexual assault dating back to his time as anRCMP officer stationed in Saskatchewan in the1980s and 1990s.

The B.C. Prosecution Service said in an email Davidson will have to register as a sex offender for 20 years and will be banned fromowning guns for 10 years.

Davidson was charged in 2014 after a man contacted Burnaby RCMP. In all, eight men who lived in the B.C. Interior came forward against him.

According to the judgment in his January conviction,Davidson assaulted them as boys while they were on fishing trips or visiting a golf course.

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

The Saskatchewan charges came later. Three people reported to police in 2014 that they had been assaulted while they were living in or visiting Yorkton between 1987 and 1991.

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