Ex-ski coach found guilty on sex charges

SAINT-JEROME, QUE. — Former high-performance ski coach Bertrand Charest was found guilty Thursday of 37 of the 57 charges against him in connection with sexual relations with his students.

The 57 counts included sexual assault and breach of trust involving 12 females who were between 12 and 19 at the time of the offences and alleged offences.

Charest, 52, was acquitted on 18 charges, while the court said it didn’t have jurisdiction over the two other counts.

The allegations dated back to the 1990s and were in connection with events that occurred in Quebec as well as other locations such as Whistler, B.C., New Zealand and the United States.

They took place both before and during Charest’s stint with Alpine Canada’s women’s development team between 1996 and 1998.

Charest has been in custody since his arrest in March 2015.

Several of the complainants testified they had sexual relationships with Charest, with many saying he was controlling and manipulative toward the athletes whose careers he managed.

Some said they felt they were in love with Charest at the time but eventually came to believe they had been manipulated.

One former competitive Canadian skier told the trial Charest took her to have an abortion when she was about 15 after getting pregnant following unprotected sex with him on numerous occasions.

After the abortion, the sexual encounters continued with Charest purchasing contraceptives for her, she said.

The woman, whose identity was under publication ban like the other witnesses, testified she was young and in love with her coach. Charest advised her to keep their relationship quiet because he would go to prison if it became known.

Charest did not testify at the trial. But one of his lawyers told reporters at the end of the proceedings that, while Charest didn’t deny having had sex with some of the girls, the accused disagreed with his portrayal by the Crown and his alleged victims. “There were sexual relationships between Mr. Charest and certain of the (alleged) victims,” Antonio Cabral said in March. “What Mr. Charest wasn’t ready to admit was that this was a generalized behaviour and that it was generalized with 12 (alleged) victims as is reported in the charges.”

Cabral said Charest believed the sex he had with the young skiers was consensual.