Coach abusive to boy, 12, parents charge
Teammate allegedly took photos of naked pre-teen in locker room
By Robert Cribb
Last month, a 12-year-old Toronto hockey player sat undressed in a locker room as a teammate took photos of him naked then altered the images to mock the boy's body, his parents allege.
In a separate incident a week later, the same boy and a teammate were sent out of the locker room by their Mississauga Hornets coach and told to change in the rink's public hallway without supervision, the parents say.
Now, the family has hired a lawyer and the Greater Toronto Hockey League has launched an investigation led by a retired Toronto homicide officer.
Parents of the boy say their son's treatment by coaching staff of the Hornets amounts to abuse that has led the once hockey-mad pre-teen to quit the game and wrestle with nightmares and anxiety.
They say their attempts to seek a response from the club and the league over the past several weeks have been met with silence.
Only after the Star became aware of the allegations this week did the GTHL launch an investigation, said the boy's father, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of his son.
He says repeated attempts to confirm whether the photographs of his son have been destroyed have been ignored.
"It's crazy how they're trying to cover up. To date, we still have nothing from the Hornets and they are the primary source that should have investigated this right away and told us the status of these photographs."
Frank Bessette, general manager of the Hornets, declined comment Friday saying the organization will not speak about the allegations until the league investigation is complete.
Scott Oakman, the GTHL's executive director, also declined to provide details about the incident.
But in an email to the boy's father this week, Oakman wrote that the league has appointed retired Toronto Police Services sergeant Michael Davis to conduct the investigation.
"His report will be filed with us once he has completed all of the necessary interviews," Oakman wrote.
Davis did not respond to an interview request from the Star.
The boy and a teammate were scolded by the coach and sent out of the room following a Jan. 26 game in Mississauga, his parents allege.
"There was no attempt by any of the coaching staff to supervise or follow these two 12-year-olds (who) had left in a state of undress. A school teacher is not allowed to dispatch a student outside in the winter because of an alleged disruption in the class unattended. What gives a hockey coach such authority?"
The boy was singled out for the team's poor performance on the ice, said his mother.
"Who does that? It's ridiculous. I'm appalled that this has to happen to 12-year-old children playing recreational sports."
After the incident, the boy met with a school counsellor and confided his anxieties about being photographed without clothes by a teammate carrying a cell-phone camera, his father said. The boy told the counsellorthe photographer altered the photos in a way that made parts of his body appear to wiggle – images the photographer showed to teammates.
