high-profile canadian track coach guilty of historic sexual abuse of his young athletes
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an alberta judge has found a high-profile track-and-field coach guilty of five criminal charges relating to historic sexual abuse of young athletes four decades ago, describing the accused as “an adult in authority using a child for their sexual gratification.”
ken porter, 76, was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault and three counts of gross indecency, after a metro vancouver man fought to have this long-forgotten case brought to justice.
alberta justice nicholas devlin released his judgment wednesday in edmonton, the city where the victims trained in the 1970s and frequently received inappropriate massages from their coach.
“the sexual touching during trackside massages constituted gross indecencies,” devlin wrote.
“the acts were non-consensual, sexual in nature … done to minors, and caused discomfort, confusion, and even revulsion amongst the victims. touching the anus and genital areas of teenage boys without true consent constitutes a serious infringement of sexual autonomy and can cause profound psychological harm.”
devlin, though, acquitted porter of five additional counts.
victim chris dallin raised the public alarm about this case in an investigative story by the vancouver sun. forty years ago, he was a frightened boy who never thought anyone would believe him, and today is overwhelmingly relieved with the guilty verdicts.
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“i’m really pleased that the judge believed what we had to say,” he said of the complainants who all suffered after the abuse.
“my life was filled with hope and with prospects, and i was very driven, and there was a lot of good in my life. and when that happened to me, it all changed. it all went dark.”
the judge referred to dallin as “complainant zero” for going to the rcmp in 2007 to report porter had sexually assaulted him in the late 1970s, although nothing happened at that time.
following the sun’s story and an investigation by athletics canada, the governing body for track and field, edmonton police interviewed the complainants in 2019. postmedia has reported that at least nine people have alleged abuse by porter, many of them now living in b.c., but only four were the subject of charges at this trial.
chris dallin with his track and field medal collection in 2019.
jason payne
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when dallin was 14, porter recruited the promising young sprinter to the edmonton olympic club in 1977.
dallin testified that porter, who was then 28, was considered “the best track coach in western canada,” and that he trusted him, but as a teen also hated the “constant touching,” including of his buttocks and genitals during trackside massages.
dallin also described porter taking him to fine dining restaurants alone, buying food and alcohol.
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porter testified he never intended to touch the victims sexually, but the judge found him “bereft of credibility.” he described porter’s evidence as a combination of “contradictions, vacillations and absurdities.”
devlin concluded as “fact” that as an adult, porter was “infatuated” with the high school student dallin and had used his “charm and verbal intelligence” to convince the teen not to report any wrongdoing.
however, the judge acquitted porter of two charges stemming from an incident in saskatoon, for which dallin got some dates and facts wrong due to the passage of time.
a second witness, known only as j, started track at 15, joining the edmonton olympic club in the late 1970s.
j testified he and two other teenage athletes had dinner at porter’s apartment, where the coach showed the boys pornographic magazines, something he found embarrassing.
porter then asked j to put on a yellow thong so he could give him a private “rub down,” or massage, during which the coach touched the athlete’s anus several times.
porter recalled the magazines, but denied the thong. devlin, though, concluded “this was grooming behaviour intended to sexually arouse the boys,” and it was “totally inappropriate.”
former ottawa lions track and field club president and coach ken porter.
ottawa lions club
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a third witness known as k joined edmonton olympic in 1976 when he was 16. he said while they were alone in porter’s apartment, the adult coach gave the teen athlete a massage in his bedroom, while they were both naked, resulting in porter ejaculating.
k testified that he is gay and had initially desired this new experience, but after the encounter felt “suddenly repulsed” by what happened. devlin later described k as feeling “exploited and preyed upon.”
while porter denied this took place, devlin ruled that he was “satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt” that it did.
devlin acquitted porter, though, of an allegation that he masturbated k while at a calgary track meet, saying the evidence was too vague.
today, dallin rejects any suggestion he is a hero for fighting for this case to be heard.
“all i did was tell the truth, because i felt like i had to. it was necessary to save others from him,” he said of porter.
although it has taken four decades to get justice, dallin said it has helped to heal a very difficult part of his life.
“(porter) was my ticket to be an olympian. that was what i wanted. and so in my young mind, it was always all about trying to fix something that was inherently unfixable … it was so shameful and so embarrassing,” he said wednesday.
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“(the verdict) makes things better because ken, i think, is going to be taken off the street.”
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