WARNING: This text accommodates particulars of abuse.
A famend Canadian pairs skating coach was sentenced on Monday to 12 months in jail for sexual assault and gross indecency towards a teenage athlete within the Nineteen Eighties.
Quebec court docket Decide Josee Belanger advised a Montreal court docket that Richard Gauthier deserves a harsh sentence attributable to components that embody the age of the sufferer and the place of authority and belief Gauthier had over him.
“The truth that the sufferer was a baby will increase the diploma of accountability of the offender, and that’s due to the vulnerability of kids,” she mentioned.
“The court docket concludes that the accused’s accountability could be very nice.”
Gauthier, 61, was discovered responsible in January of two prices courting again to 1984 or 1985 involving the male skater, who was 14 or 15 on the time of the offences. He was acquitted of a 3rd rely of indecent assault towards the sufferer, whose id is roofed by a publication ban.
In court docket, Gauthier was accused of getting bathed bare with the sufferer, taken showers with him and spooned bare with him in a mattress on the accused’s residence.
Gauthier spent greater than three a long time coaching world-class pairs skaters. He was inducted into the Skate Canada Corridor of Fame as a coach in 2015, although he was expelled from Skate Canada following his conviction.
Sufferer ‘idolized’ Gauthier
A number of outstanding members of the skating group testified in court docket on Gauthier’s behalf. These statements, whereas honest, “illustrate effectively in what measure sexual violence towards kids may be invisible within the eyes of society,” Belanger mentioned in her ruling Monday.
Belanger famous that the sufferer had “idolized” his coach and had compellingly described the lasting impacts of the assaults, together with despair, issue with intimate relationships and bother sleeping.
The sufferer was current in court docket, and cried as the choice on sentencing was learn. He then turned his head and watched as Gauthier was handcuffed and brought into custody on the finish of the listening to.
Talking to reporters after the sentencing, the sufferer mentioned that as he struggled with the aftermath of the assault, Gauthier was in a position to take pleasure in 40 years as a celebrated coach of world-ranked and Olympic athletes.
“He was in a position to take pleasure in this lovely life, and I didn’t get that,” he mentioned. “Whatever the outcome, I skilled what I skilled, and that can by no means change.”
Nevertheless, the sufferer mentioned coming ahead was the “finest determination I’ve ever made,” and he mentioned he hoped his story would encourage others to talk up sooner than he did to allow them to extra shortly entry assist and therapeutic.
Talking up additionally “forces folks to speak. It helps folks to maintain coming ahead,” he mentioned, noting that he was motivated to come back ahead after seeing different victims communicate out.
‘Error in judgment,’ says Gauthier
Gauthier’s authorized crew had requested that he be given a suspended sentence, or a jail time period that may very well be served on weekends, which Belanger mentioned would have been “inappropriate” and minimized the crimes.
Nevertheless, she additionally mentioned the Crown’s suggestion of 18 months was too excessive given the quite a few mitigating components, together with the truth that Gauthier was 23 on the time of the crimes, had no legal file, and is taken into account a “low or very low” threat of re-offending. He has additionally misplaced his profession, and was most lately working in a pizzeria, she famous.
As a part of his defence, Gauthier advised the court docket earlier this yr that the acts with the sufferer came about in a unique time, when private relationships between coaches and athletes had been much less regulated.
He denied committing any sexual acts towards the sufferer, however mentioned he’d lacked judgment by placing himself able the place he was alone together with his pupil outdoors of a coaching or competitors setting.
“An error in judgment on my half at age 23, when life and morals had been totally different, ruined my motive for dwelling; specifically instructing and my data,” he wrote in a letter learn at his sentencing listening to in August.
Gauthier’s lawyer didn’t remark after the sentencing. Prosecutor Christine Desjarlais mentioned she was pleased with the choose’s determination, which she mentioned sends a powerful sign that “crimes towards kids are to not be tolerated.”
Assist is obtainable for anybody who has been sexually assaulted by disaster traces and native assist companies by way of this Authorities of Canada web site or the Ending Violence Affiliation of Canada database. For those who’re in quick hazard or worry on your security or that of others round you, please name 911.