Imprison Graham James

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/02/2012 (5205 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There was a whole lot of apologizing and rationalizing at the sentencing hearing for former junior hockey coach and convicted sex offender Graham James. Defence lawyer Evan Roitenberg even compared the public attention focused on James to the 16th-century witch hunts — the pursuit by rabid Puritans of young women accused of doing the devil’s work.

Crown attorney Colleen McDuff asked for a six-year sentence for sexually abusing Theoren Fleury and Todd Holt, almost twice as long as a sentence James got in 1998 for abusing two other former hockey players under his wing early in their careers. She noted the term was based on the circumstances as they were known at that time. (A conviction for abusing a third boy resulted in a concurrent sentence. James served about 18 months in prison.) Ms. McDuff emphasized that James is still attracted to teenage boys, but Mr. Roitenberg said painting him as an abiding threat is wrong, noting he has not reoffended since his release. He requested a conditional sentence of up to 18 months.

Graham James does not deserve to be on a curfew in the community. He should go to prison again. Sentencing is not simply about preventing the offender from reoffending, but is also the way society registers its abhorrence of crime — particularly important in grave crimes against children — and sends a message to other like-minded offenders.

James’s apology and Mr. Roitenberg’s characterization of the exploitive relationship with the young hockey players indicate some people still do not understand the colossal betrayal adults in a position of trust and power commit when they prey upon the vulnerable. Mr. Roitenberg said the relationships were complex, which is true, in that young victims are made to believe they are part of a consensual, reciprocal affair.

But there could have been no mistaking by James of the heinous wrong he committed. No competent adult can be allowed to comfort himself by delusions of mutual consent or misunderstanding. Sexual abuse of children wreaks a special kind of havoc and it ruins lives. A prison term makes that point. Conditional release into the community does not.