Graham Michael James (born 7 February 1952), is a former Canadian ice hockey coach for the Western Hockey League and convicted pedophile, and was named Man of the Year by The Hockey News in 1989 after coaching the Swift Current Broncos league championship win, and became the General Manager and coach of the Calgary Hitmen in 1994.
James attracted national attention two years later when Sheldon Kennedy and an unnamed colleague came forward to accuse him of sexually abusing them over a period of years as their junior league coach. James pled guilty and was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.
After completing his sentence, James obtained a federal pardon and left the country, settling in Spain and Mexico. However in 2009, Theoren Fleury published a book alleging he too had been abused by James in the 1980s, which James again acknowledged as true. In March of 2012, he was sentenced to another two years in prison.
James was given a lifetime ban from coaching by the Canadian Hockey Association. When the CHA learned that James was coaching in Spain, it complained to European ice hockey officials, and he was fired …
Star – Theo Fleury and Todd Holt call Graham James sentence ‘a national travesty’
People are enraged with Manitoba provincial court Judge Catherine Carlson. But her sentence is normal for this kind of criminal.
Strange legal system we’ve got in Canada: Tough on marijuana. Easy on pedophiles.
No wonder victims, male and female, are so reluctant to accuse their coach.
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