Former Metro Vancouver youth coach convicted of voyeurism given suspended sentence

A former Metro Vancouver youth hockey and baseball coach has been handed a suspended sentence after he was convicted of voyeurism in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.

Randy William Downeshas also been placed on six months probationfor theconviction, stemming from charges dating back to 2013, when it was alleged he took photographs of young male players, aged 12 and 14,in a locker changing room.

An investigation into Downesbegan in 2016when his electronic devices were searched by border officers as he returned to Canada from atrip to Washington state.

While looking for receipts and invoices for duty tax purposes, the officers found suspicious photographs of a young boy taken in multiple different locations in a store, and they flagged Downes to RCMP.

In 2019, aB.C. Supreme Court judge found Downes guilty, saying he surreptitiouslytookthe photographs of the two boys in various states of undressina place where there's a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Downes coachedat various levelsfor three decades in the Lower Mainland, including with the Burnaby Winter Club, the Coquitlam Minor Hockey Association and Coquitlam-Moody Baseball.

The two boys at the heart of thetrial had beenplaying on teams coached by Downes. Their identities are protected under a publication ban.

Images cropped, emailed, downloaded

The court said in many cases, Downescropped and emailed the images to himself after snapping them on his phone.

The images were later downloaded to his home computer and saved to a USB stick.

As part of the sentencing, Downes has had to forfeit possession of his electronic devices, which will be scrubbed of the images in question before being returned to him.