N.B. referee sentenced for sexual abuse
Says he is not satisfied with New Brunswick hockey referee’s sentence
Fifty years later, he still remembers Carl Alonzo Levesque’s car, where the abuse took place: a burgundy Ford Galaxy with a white vinyl top and a black interior. Levesque, a minor hockey referee, would fill up the car with young boys and cruise Saint John’s west side after hockey games.
Fifty years later, he still remembers Carl Alonzo Levesque’s car, where the abuse took place: a burgundy Ford Galaxy with a white vinyl top and a black interior. Levesque, a minor hockey referee, would fill up the car with young boys and cruise Saint John’s west side after hockey games.
He’d buy them milkshakes and fries at the Roll ’n’ Shake, a former landmark on the Golden Mile.
“I didn’t know why, but at 11 years old you wouldn’t be able to put it together in your mind,” says a 60-year-old man who works in Newfoundland and lives in Halifax, and whose name is protected by a publication ban.
“They all kind of chuckled and said, ‘You’ll find out when you’re the last one off some night.’” One day, he was. Now Levesque, 68, has been convicted on four counts of indecent assault involving two victims — including the now-60-year-old man — that date back to the early 1960s in Saint John.
I didn’t know why, but at 11 years old you wouldn’t be able to put it together in your mind. A 60-year-old man whose name is protected by a publication ban
Levesque was handed a 15month conditional sentence and two years of probation in a Montreal court last week. He is under conditions to stay away from public parks and swimming areas where children are present, and he cannot hold a job where he is in the position of trust or authority over a minor. He is not to use a computer for communicating with children, and his name was added to the national sex offender’s registry, according to a Jean Pascal Boucher, a court spokesman. He was also ordered to submit a DNA sample.
The four charges are among numerous child sex abuse convictions that Levesque has amassed throughout his life — he was detained as recently as between 2007 and 2009, Boucher said. However, he had no criminal record in the 1960s at the time the assaults he was convicted of Tuesday took place.
For the victim, who was silent about his abuse for years, the sentence was not nearly enough.
“It’s horrendous,” he says, adding he was particularly troubled to learn he wasn’t Levesque’s only victim. “Why would this guy still be on this planet? It’s beyond me.”
The 60-year-old victim contacted the Saint John Police Force only two years ago.
“I kept it to myself for all those years,” he says. “I guess part of the impact it had on me, I was ashamed of it.”
But the more he learned about child sex abuse, he began to realize he was not alone.
“I thought, my God, this is rampant. I thought I was the only one in the world who had ever been sexually molested. It gave me the courage to come forward.”
Police investigated and summoned Levesque to Saint John provincial court on July 30, 2012, said Sgt. Jay Henderson of the Saint John Police Force. Levesque failed to appear, and police issued a warrant for his arrest.
Police in Montreal, where Levesque has been living for years, arrested him a short time later. The file was then transferred to Quebec. The practice is common if an individual agrees to plead guilty, Henderson said.
After a few brief court appearances in Montreal this spring, a judge sentenced Levesque July 9.
It marked the end of a long period of struggle for the 60-year-old victim, who said the effect of the abuse was “insidious.”
“It starts out you’ve got a dark secret to hide and somehow you feel like you’re different from other people, that you’re damaged goods,” the man says. “So you don’t relate intimately with other people. You’re kind of guarded.”
He grew up with a low opinion of himself and was not able to develop healthy relationships.
The man has been divorced twice and was engaged to be married in a third relationship that fell apart. He turned to drugs and alcohol and ended up being treated for depression. The treatment included counselling, which helped him tell his story and seek resolution.
“It’s something I don’t need to hide anymore,” he says. “I’ve come to the realization that I don’t care what people think.”
The man was willing to share his identity with the Telegraph-Journal, but a court order prevents the publication of any victims’ names.
He hopes his story might encourage others to come forward – whether it’s involving Levesque or anyone else.
“There are probably a lot of guys my age or older who have been dragging this around for a long time,” he says. “If it helps some other guys get something off their chest, it’s a good thing.”
The victim is also planning civil legal action against Levesque as well as Saint John Youth Minor Hockey for damages. He is concerned they may have known about the abuse in the early to mid-1960s, but did nothing to stop it.
Scott Geikie, president of the hockey association, could not be reached for comment.
The victim, who does not have fond memories of Saint John and moved away as a teenager, said he doubts he’s the only local victim, because all the school children would bring up Levesque’s name when they teased and put down one another.
“They’d say, ‘You’re such a Carl. … Go away, Carl.’ Everyone knew what it meant,” he said. “My biggest fear was, does anyone really know the truth?”
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