Ex basketball coach charged with sexual assault
Calgary police have charged a former basketball coach with several counts of sexually assaulting one of his teenage players.
The incidents allegedly occurred in the summer of 2016 when the man who coached a team in the Genesis basketball league befriended a 14-year-old player.
The coach was “often driving him to basketball games and practices, school and other locations,” police said Friday in a news release.
After the male victim came forward with complaints about the alleged assaults, police began an investigation in November last year.
On Jan. 19, Sean Maheu, 38, was charged with sexual assault, sexual touching, sexual interference, sexual exploitation and invitation to sexual touching.
On Maheu's Twitter account, whose latest entries are in early December 2016, he describes himself as a “teacher and learner” with a profile motto of “Basketball never stops.”
Maheu's next appearance in court is scheduled for March 11.
Maheu began coaching at the Genesis Basketball League in 2015 and left it in 2018, president Eddie Richardson said in a statement Friday.
“We have been in communication with the family of the young man involved and are deeply saddened,” stated Richardson. “We will support them however possible.
“We take this situation seriously and have been, and will continue to be, in full co-operation with the Calgary Police Service's investigation.”
Maheu was a well-known figure in the local basketball community and previous to his stint at Genesis had worked at Hull Services, which serves the city's most vulnerable youth and families, said Richardson.
He said the league's coaches are required to have a police check that's no more than a year old and
must also undergo a vulnerable sector search.
Police are urging anyone with information on child sexual abuse to contact the Calgary and Area Child Advocacy Centre website at www. calgarycac.ca.