Calgary police Det. Jeff Klinger and Perry Cavanagh, president of Hockey Calgary, speak to reporters on Wednesday. (CBC)A Calgary hockey coach had been with a girls' hockey team for only a few weeks before he allegedly began sexual assaulting a 15-year-old player, say police.
Police began an investigation Nov. 12 after the teen's parent called them, the force said Wednesday.
The alleged incidents are believed to have occurred in Calgary over three days outside of hockey events, said Det. Jeff Klinger.
"Any time a player and coach are involved in a team, there's going to be some kind of relationship that develops," said Klinger. "That relationship took them outside of the bounds of what would occur typically between a player and a coach in a hockey rink or on the ice, and it's the relationship outside that deteriorated to the point where sexual charges were laid."
Michael Shawn Bourgeois, 33, is charged with:
- Sexual assault.
- Inciting sexual contact with a youth by a person in authority.
- Invitation to sexual touching with a child under 16.
- Sexual contact with a youth by a person in authority.
- Sexual interference with a child under 16.
Klinger said the coach has shown a "pattern of behaviour" in the past, but he declined to elaborate. The police investigation did not uncover any other alleged victims.
Bourgeois removed himself from coaching duties after the investigation began. He had been a hockey coach several years ago, but took a hiatus before returning this year, said Klinger.
Hockey Calgary, the governing body for organized hockey in the city, is working with the police, said Perry Cavanagh, the group's president.
"It is a recommendation that certainly background checks are completed. It is traditionally not mandatory within the associations to do that. We leave that to the respective associations," said Cavanagh.
He said most local hockey associations incorporate background checks as part of their policies, but he did not know if one was done on Bourgeois.
With files from Zulekha Nathoo
