The Parole Board of Canada has released the written record (read it after the jump) of a decision last week to grant freedom to sex predator Graham James, 62, (inset), a former hockey coach who exploited and abused young men he coached, including several who went on to successful professional careers in the National Hockey League. James was granted day parole after a hearing January 25 in Quebec, where he is completing a seven-year sentence for sexual assault, the latest in a series of convictions related to hundreds of incidents that date to the early 1970s. It is his second federal prison term.
The parole document notes that some of the young men, often teenagers at the time of the attacks, reported being abused by James hundreds of times. James was a successful coach in the Western Hockey League in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Among his victims were Theo Fleury and Sheldon Kennedy, who both went on to careers in the NHL. James was first convicted in 1997 in Calgary, after pleading guilty to abusing players. He also has a conviction from an incident in 1971 involving a 14-year-old boy, according to a chronology of his case compiled by the Toronto Star. James will be released to a halfway house with six conditions, including the requirement that he not be in the presence of any male children under the age of 18 unless he’s accompanied by a responsible adult who knows his criminal history and has been approved by his parole supervisor. The parole document notes that James admitted to a psychologist that he’s still attracted to adolescent males and particularly to young men aged 15 to 25. It also appears that the board isn’t convinced his his empathy for the suffering of his victims is genuine. The document states that James seem to “have intellectualised [his] empathy but the Board cannot conclude that it is heartfelt.”
Here’s the written record of the parole decision:
