SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. — Convicted sex offender Graham James pleaded guilty Friday to more charges involving a player who described the former junior hockey coach as his tormentor and his demon.
Justice Tim Keene accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence that called for two years to be added onto the five-year sentence James is almost finished serving on other charges.
The 62-year-old appeared in a Saskatchewan courtroom via video link from a prison in Quebec to enter his plea.
The victim, who was 18 at the time and whose name is under a court-ordered publication ban, said he could no longer live with the "shame, humiliation and lies" and was able to come forward with the support of his wife.
The man, who is now 43, was too emotional to give his victim impact statement to the court, so Queen’s Bench Justice Tim Keene read it for him.
"I suffered in silence," the victim wrote of the abuse he experienced while playing for James with the Western Hockey League’s Swift Current Broncos.
"He violated my trust. He took away my dream."
Prosecutor Glen Herman told the judge that James worked to build the victim’s trust and "groomed him" to take part in the abuse.
Herman said sexual contact started out with touching while clothed and progressed to the victim being naked. The prosecutor said the encounters occurred twice a week.
James confided to the player that he was gay, said Herman, who added the coach told his player that taking part wouldn’t make him gay also, but would just be "helping out a friend."
The player "felt he had no choice but to participate in these activities" because James could "crush" his hockey career, Herman said.
James apologized to the player, the team, the people he worked with and the community of Swift Current.
"Personal weakness kept me from giving what I owed to all of them — my full attention to their aspirations."
Defence lawyer Robert Skinner said his client "is remorseful and very, very sorry this has happened."
Skinner said James did very well as a hockey coach and was against violence. "Unfortunately things went very, very wrong."
It is the third time James has faced sex charges involving players he coached.
Two of those players, Todd Holt and Sheldon Kennedy, were in the Swift Current courtroom to support the latest victim.
James served 3 1/2 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in 1997 to sex offences against Kennedy and two others. Kennedy played for the Broncos at the time of the assaults and went on to play in the National Hockey League.
James sought and received a pardon for those offences in 2007, but he was back in court a few years later when Holt and his cousin, retired Calgary Flames star Theo Fleury, came forward with a new set of allegations.
James pleaded guilty and was initially sentenced to two years in 2012. An Appeal Court increased the sentence to five years, and although he has been eligible for full parole, James has never made an application.
The new charges were laid last month following an investigation that began after the RCMP received a complaint in September 2013.
A chronology for convicted sex offender and former junior hockey coach Graham James, who pleaded guilty Friday to more sex-related charges:
1983-84: Graham James named head scout of the Western Hockey League’s Winnipeg Warriors and recruits Theoren Fleury and Sheldon Kennedy.
1984: Hired as head coach of the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors.
1986: Hired as head coach and GM of WHL’s Swift Current Broncos; acquires Kennedy in a trade.
Nov. 22, 1996: Calgary police charge James with two counts of sexual assault involving more than 300 encounters with two of his former players over a span of 10 years.
Jan. 2, 1997: Pleads guilty to sexual assault and is sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison. The Canadian Hockey Association bans him for life from coaching.
Feb. 27, 1998: James pleads guilty to indecent assault on a 14-year-old boy in 1971. He receives a six-month concurrent sentence.
July 1, 2000: James’s sentence expires. He disappears from the public eye.
2001-03: James is found coaching boys teams in Spain, including the national team.
2003: A civil lawsuit, filed in 1999 by an anonymous victim, is settled out of court. James tells a Canadian reporter who finds him in Spain: "I’m sorry for all of this."
2007: James quietly applies for and receives a pardon from the National Parole Board, prompting national outrage when it comes to light several years later.
October 2009: Fleury releases his autobiography "Playing with Fire" in which he alleges James sexually molested him from the age of 14.
January 2010: Fleury files a complaint with the Winnipeg Police Service, prompting an investigation into his allegations.
May 2010: Reporters track down James in Guadalajara, Mexico.
October 2010: Winnipeg police issue a Canada-wide warrant for James. He faces nine new sex charges involving three boys and spanning 1979 to 1994. James is apprehended by police at the Toronto airport and brought back to Winnipeg.
December 2010: James is granted bail and moves to Montreal.
Dec. 7, 2011: James pleads guilty to sexual offences involving Fleury and one unnamed victim.
March 2012: James is sentenced to two years.
Feb. 15, 2013: Manitoba Court of Appeal increases sentence to five years.
May 25, 2015: James is charged with sexual assault against a player he coached with the Swift Current Broncos in the early 1990s.
June 19, 2015: James pleads guilty to most-recent charges. Justice Tim Keene accepts a joint submission that calls for two years to be added onto the five-year sentence.
