WARNING: This article contains graphic details and can affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by him.
A former Athletics Coach from Edmonton has been convicted of historical sexual crimes against three teenagers who advised and trained in the 1970s.
In a decision on Tuesday, a judge discovered that Thomas Kenneth Porter, known as Ken Porter, sexually touched adolescents for their own satisfaction under the appearance of athletic massages.
The King Court Bank Judge, Nicholas Devlin, also found that Porter, who is now 76 years old, sexually touched two of the adolescents in separate incidents in his department.
One of those who involved a time when he invited children to dinner, then showed pornography in what the judge determined that it was an effort to prepare them. Porter then offered them “Rubds”, their term for massages on the side of the track he gave to young athletes.
The former coach observed the decision remotely of his lawyer in Ottawa. It remains on bail pending your sentence, which will be established at a later date.
The plaintiffs, who were between 15 and 17 when they trained with Porter, testified that their massages progressed from rubbing their legs to uploading their bodies and touching their buttocks, genitals and anus.
Porter’s behavior “constituted an exploitation or perversion of contact by a trustworthy adult,” Devlin said.
“It caused discomfort, confusion and even repulsion among the victims.”
Devlin concluded that Porter is guilty of two charges of indecent assault and three charges of severe indecency: charges under the Criminal Code at the time of accusations, from 1976 to 1980. Devlin found Porter not guilty of the other five positions he faced, including each of the positions established with a relationship with one of the complainants.
Porter initially faced more than a dozen positions related to five men who were his former apprentices. The counts related to one of them were removed later.
Each of the identities of the men is protected by a prohibition of publication, except Chris Dallin, who asked the court to raise the prohibition of his name. He was the first to inform his experiences with Porter to the Police in 2007.
Almost 20 years later, and about 50 years after he started training with Porter when he was a 14 -year -old boy, Dallin said Tuesday that he wanted to make sure that Porter could never be in a situation where he was close to children or young men again.
He said that it is also important for him to tell his own story.
“I am no longer ashamed for this,” he said.
“I want people to understand that it is fine to go through this.”
Inappropriate contact during massages
One of the men he testified described a dinner that he attended with other teenage athletes, while Porter was the only adult. The coach served walnut and passed through the pornographic magazines he said he received in Europe.
In Devlin’s decision, he said Porter recognized those events, but the former coach said that he now considers him incorrect to show adolescents pornography.
Devlin found Porter guilty of severe indecency and indecent assault by a massage that the plaintiff described that it happened after dinner, where Porter made him change in a yellow thong, then massaged his legs and buttocks and touched his anus.
Devlin also determined that Porter sexually touched another teenager who testified that at first, he felt excited about Porter’s physical attention, as a young person in the process of discovering his sexuality.
But the man told the court that after a massage where Porter touched his genitals, he felt rejected and had a physical reaction. Later in life, he fought with the dependence of drugs and alcohol.
The criminal case occurred after the inappropriate sexual behavior reports caused the athletics of Canada to commission the former defender of Ontario André Marin in 2019 for independent investigation.
When Marin’s report was completed, Porter was fired as president of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club and issued a life prohibition for Athletics Canada.
Devlin’s decision says that the investigation triggered extensive communication between the plaintiffs in the criminal case, which were known since their time as young athletes.
“Surprisingly, Mr. Marin encouraged them to communicate with each other,” said Devlin.
That, in addition to another exposure to the stories of others, led to questions during the judgment on how they can have influenced the memories of the other.
Devlin said it was a problem that led to the non -guilt decision on the three positions related to a third plaintiff. Although he accredited that man for being open and honest in his testimony, Devlin said he could not be sure that memories came from sources “not true”, adds to a reasonable doubt.
The coach was ‘in love’ of a teenager, according to Judge
The judge also acquitted Porter of two positions for an incident where Dallin claimed that the coach sexually assaulted him in a Saskatoon hotel room.
Dallin testified that he was 15 years old at that time, and among a group of athletes traveling with Porter for an athletics meeting. He said he was supposed to be a room with another teenager, but Porter told him that he would stay with him.
During the night, Dallin described having a nightmare that Porter was interpreting oral sex on him, then woke up to discover that he was really happening.
But the inconsistencies in some of the evidence presented during the trial and memory of Dallin ended with the judge saying that he was not sure enough for a conviction.
“Since I am sure that Mr. Porter touched sexually [Dallin] Because of his satisfaction … It seems to me that he is likely to have made an unwanted sexual advance. The way probably happened a lot [Dallin] He described: “Devlin said.
“I don’t think so [Dallin]. But I can’t be sure when it happened when, where and how it was described. “
But when it was Porter’s explanation about the sexual contact reported with Dallin during the massages, the judge said that “changing, selfish and almost desperate evidence … leaves Mr. Porter without credibility.”
Devlin discovered that the coach was “in love” of the teenager Dallin.
“His massages sometimes caused erections and happened enough that he had thought about how to deal with that,” said Devlin.
“His evidence shows that Mr. Porter was not worried at all about sexually exciting adolescents to whom he was sitting his hands.”
Dallin said he was disappointed by Porter, was not guilty in the hotel incident. But he pleases how everyone involved in the case took him seriously.
“I have gone through the advice and I have left the other extreme, and I feel pretty good with my life at this time,” he said in an interview.
“But boy, I was sure a long time when I was young who was very, very confused and I had many problems associated with what happened to me as a result of that trauma.”
Dallin said they want others to know that it is fine to talk about experiences such as yours, even though they can feel ashamed or uncertain.
“Children, young people need some people to show the way, say: ‘This guy is fine, and he also went through something traumatic, and seems perfectly willing to talk about that, even if it is difficult.”
If you are in immediate or fears for your safety or that of others around you, call 911. To obtain support in your area, you can search for local crisis and services through the Finish the database of the Canada Sexual Violence Association.
