It’s worse than that. It’s a dark moment for everyone, though we are learning that this sort of shadow finds too many corners in locker rooms.

Once again, former junior coach James stood in front of a judge on Wednesday and was convicted of sex crimes. The court sat in Winnipeg. James blandly delivered his lines via video link from Montreal, where he is free on bail.He will remain free until his Feb. 22 sentencing.

James has already served 3½ years in prison for assaults on several of his other charges, including former NHLer Sheldon Kennedy.

James ran once before, but there’s nowhere for him to hide now. He has become the wearisome and malignant Canadian face of child abuse.

As part of a plea, James admitted guilt in the sexual abuse of two more of his young players, former Calgary Flames star Theoren Fleury and a second man whose name remains under a publication ban.

The ugly details were read out in an agreed statement of facts. How James began his abuse of Fleury by fondling him while he slept. How it escalated to forced oral sex. How, perhaps most damaging of all, he coerced Fleury’s silence by threatening to extinguish his NHL hopes if he told anyone.

The modus operandi was the same in both cases.

There is something twisted and mythic about Graham James. Like a storybook monster, he fed on the dreams of children. That was the word Fleury used to describe him — “monster.”

On TV, this would have been a moment of exhalation. The villain is bound by law and knows to a certainty that his punishment is coming. The victims get to move on, knowing that their persecutor will pay and, more importantly, that their stories have been vindicated.

Sadly, life isn’t like that. Everybody involved lost and will continue losing forever. Some crimes spiral out eternally. Vindication is a paltry thing measured against a lifetime of remembering.

Fleury didn’t sound relieved, or whatever word it is that we now reflexively attach to those who’ve suffered and survived.

“When he gets out of prison, he will do it again, and again, and again,” Fleury said from Calgary. “I believe what people show me. He showed me he was and is a rapist.”

Referring to James’ previous conviction and his infamous pardon, Fleury dismissed the entire notion of justice in this particular.

“What the legal system has shown me is that it’s flawed, very, very seriously, and that we have to change.”

Another of the children James preyed on, Greg Gilhooly, had even less to hang on to. The charges James faced in his case were stayed Wednesday.

Gilhooly has managed to find his footing in the world. He works as a corporate lawyer. He used that training to detach himself from the human element here — that human element being himself — and view things at a professional remove.

“The Crown gets a guilty plea,” Gilhooly said approvingly. “The Crown gets agreement to the statement of fact without opposition. And the Crown didn’t have to cut a deal on sentence.”

He appended that thought with a closing look inward: “Everybody gets what they want but me.”

There is no ending here, happy or otherwise.

As in the case of Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky — jailed on Wednesday — or Syracuse coach Bernie Fine — who skipped on several charges because of statute of limitations problems — there is only human wreckage.

All that’s left behind is a corrosive suspicion of the many good-hearted people who want to teach kids how to skate or tackle or dribble.

There is no lesson to be learned or guarantee of future vigilance.

All there is by way of apology for several lives destroyed is punishment. It’s a completely necessary and ultimately unsatisfying resolution.

Graham James took something wonderful — mentorship, sport, childish hopes — and twisted them into something horrible. No jail sentence can scrub off that taint.

Source: The Star

Prosecutor Rachelle Pitre argued at the Montreal courthouse Wednesday that an eight-year prison sentence is appropriate in Gabriel Cantin’s case, despite his age, because he still tries to minimize the impact of his crimes and refuses to address his apparent obsession with child pornography.

Montreal police Det.-Sgt. Brigitte Guérard testified investigators found evidence Cantin collected child pornography off the Internet since 1997. An analysis of 23 computer hard drives seized at his home turned up more than 46,000 photos and videos of child pornography. Guérard said eight other hard drives have yet to be verified.

On March 16, Cantin pleaded guilty to four counts related to a collection of child pornography described by Montreal police as one of the largest they’ve uncovered.

He also pleaded guilty to sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching.

Cantin testified Wednesday and asked Quebec Court Judge Céline Lamontagne to consider his age before making a decision.

“They say I’m going to reoffend,” Cantin said, referring to a presentencing report prepared for the hearing. “But at 72, do you think I’m going to reoffend so I can die in prison?”

He cried at one point and said his family now “treats me like garbage.”

Among the computer files seized at his Anjou home in November is a video showing him abusing the 3-year-old girl while changing her diaper.

In baffling testimony, Cantin tried to argue that he intended to videotape the diaper change – as if it was a normal thing to do – but did not plan to molest the child.

“It was done on an impulse and I simply forgot to erase the video,” Cantin said.

A publication ban prohibits the release of information that could identify the victim.

Cantin attempted to shrug off his actions, which included hiding a video camera in his bathroom and recording another young girl as she removed her clothes.

Arguing for leniency, Cantin said he believes he caused minimal emotional damage to his victims because children who are 3 or under don’t recall much of what happens to them as they get older, according to experts he has heard.

While he was making this point, the father of the victim stormed out of the courtroom.

Cantin said his life has been threatened at the Rivière des Prairies Detention Centre, and he paid other inmates for protection.

As he testified, a courtroom guard stood behind him.

Defence lawyer Audrey Amzallag suggested Cantin be sentenced to two years for the sexual abuse charges and another two, to be served consecutively, for the child pornography.

She noted the presentencing report assessed Cantin as a low risk to commit a sexual offence, but a high risk of reoffending when it comes to child pornography.

Lamontagne is to render her sentence on Oct. 28.

Source: The Gazette

Montreal police Sergeant Detective Marco Breton tells CJAD News two five-year-old girls were approached by a man who showed them kiddie porn pictures including video camera images of him masturbating. It happened at the corner of Mountain Sights and Ferrier at about 5 p.m. on Sunday, July 20.

Breton says one of the girls’ mothers noticed what was going on and detained him with the help of the other mom and a neighbour until police arrived. He put up a fight, pushing one person and hitting another. He also allegedly tried to erase the pictures and get rid of the photos by throwing them under a parked car.

Robert Knight faces charges of possession and distribution of child porn and a charge of assault. He’s being held without bail and returns to court this fall.

The police are asking for the public’s help in finding any possible victims.

Knight  speaks English, is about six feet tall, 190 pounds, with a shaved head and blue eyes.

Breton says they have reason to believe there could be other victims and asks anyone with information about the suspect or any possible victim to call Info-Crime at 514-393-1133.