Ex-NHLer expects more accusations

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This article was published 07/04/2010 (5636 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — Former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy says Graham James could have as many as 150 accusers and more will likely come forward now that a controversial pardon has put the shamed hockey coach back in the spotlight.

James, who coached several junior teams, was granted a pardon from the parole board in 2007 for sexual assaults against two of his former players, including Kennedy. He was sentence to 3 1/2 years in prison in 1997.

"Back when I charged him and he pleaded guilty the police figured in their investigation of myself and the other guy who came forward that there was anywhere between 75 and 150 and I would think that’s not too far off," said Kennedy.

"I think the way this whole thing has been presented, it’s almost re-sparked that fire within people to say: ‘You know what, I need to come forward to make changes.’ And not only with Graham.

"Look at the heightened awareness around this pardon stuff."

The James case had faded from the spotlight until last year when former NHL star Theo Fleury wrote a book in which he made allegations that he was abused by his former coach. Winnipeg police launched a fresh investigation.

The Canadian Press learned of James’s pardon from another previously unknown accuser who went to Winnipeg police with his story and was told of a possible pardon by investigators.

That accuser, who played for the Fort Garry Blues in Winnipeg, said he had yet to file a formal complaint with police.

But there are reports that others have come forward to police recently, including one Calgary man who was reportedly abused while in Saskatchewan and another man, who also played for the Blues, and said that James’s strange behaviour forced him to quit playing hockey.

There has been no public comment from James about the allegations and the disgraced coach’s current whereabouts are unknown. He would have had to have been conviction-free for five years following the completion of his sentence in order to qualify for a pardon.

Police won’t talk about the complaints and no fresh charges have been laid.

Mark Gobuty, a Blues player who was coached by James in 1980-81, said he never witnessed anything sexual but had a vague, uneasy feeling about James and repeatedly rejected requests to visit James at his home.

"Graham’s behaviour was odd and uncomfortable," Gobuty, 45, said Tuesday from Toronto.

"There’s at least 50 more suffering guys out there that don’t want to tell their story."

He said Graham would "show special favours" to some players, such as giving them more ice time or inviting them over to his apartment. He said as a naive 15-year-old, he didn’t fully realize what was going on but noticed some players were brought up to the junior A team when their skills weren’t at that level.

"I was invited over to watch game films on a couple or three occasions. After I turned him down a couple or three times, I just wasn’t invited again," he said. "He always gave me the heebie-jeebies."

Kennedy said James took steps to cover his tracks.

"He would invite other players back to his place and wouldn’t do anything with them. So he would go through the same motions with some other guys on the team but not do anything. And they would go ‘nothing happened to me,’ " Kennedy said.

Pedophiles are "master manipulators," he suggested.

"It’s like an obsession, right? It’s like an addict."

Kennedy, who was a teammate of Fleury’s on the Calgary Flames, has dedicated his life to speaking out about sexual abuse and was elected to the board of the Canadian Society for the Investigation of Child Abuse. His experiences were chronicled in the 1999 television movie The Sheldon Kennedy Story on CTV.

In 2006 Kennedy released his autobiography Why I Didn’t Say Anything — The Sheldon Kennedy Story. In the book he said nightmares of James plagued him, and suggested there are plenty of others who has suffered the same fate.

 

— The Canadian Press