Regina court house. (980 CJME/File Photo)

By CJME News

Crime Update

Former Sask. hockey coach found guilty of sexually assaulting teen boy

Dec 1, 2023 | 5:26 PM

A former Saskatchewan hockey coach has been convicted on charges of assault and sexual assault in connection with an incident that occurred in 1988.

Bernie Lynch, 69, was found guilty Friday in the Court of King’s Bench. A sentencing hearing tentatively was set for Jan. 5.

“It’s the result we wanted when we brought the case to court,” Crown prosecutor Chris White told reporters. “The Crown all along has felt that we had a pretty compelling case and we felt that we had a complainant in this matter who would do a good job of telling the court what happened.

“I hope this is vindication for him.”

Lynch’s lawyer, Andrew L. Hitchcock, said Lynch was upset by the outcome and was concerned about his future.

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“This is exactly what you’d expect from anyone in his situation,” Hitchcock said.

Hitchcock planned to review the written decision by Justice Peter Bergbusch, but noted that, on its face, it appeared the judge had considered the evidence and applied the law correctly.

The lawyer said it was too soon to know if an appeal would be filed.

“The only two people that will ever really know are the two of them and if you’re (Lynch) and you believe you’re not guilty, of course you want to appeal,” Hitchcock said. “But the question for me is whether the judge made any legal errors and I can’t say right now whether that happened.”

White said the Crown would be seeking a sentence of at least two years, which would see Lynch go to a federal penitentiary.

“We’d like to see a just sentence that recognizes the harm done and society’s abhorrence of these kinds of offences,” White said. “So that is a significant period of incarceration.”

Asked what his sentencing submission would entail, Hitchcock said he didn’t have one formulated since it was the first case he has worked on that’s more than three decades old.

“The thing that people will need to understand is that there’s difficulty in, ‘How do you be fair for an offence that’s 35 years old?’ ” he said. “Had the complainant come forward in 1988 and (Lynch) had been convicted in 1988, a different set of rules would have applied than apply now. So the judge will have to wrestle with how you deal with that reality.”

According to a media release from the time of Lynch’s arrest, police received a report in April of 2021 alleging offences by a man against a teenaged boy in Regina in 1988.

“At that time, the alleged offender held a position of authority as a hockey coach, and it was through this position that he was introduced to the victim, who was 17 years old at the time,” the police release said.

“Investigation into these allegations led to evidence sufficient to support charges of both assault and sexual assault against the adult male.”

During Lynch’s trial, court heard how he pressured a 17-year-old player who was staying at his house into drinking and getting naked and then went into the shower with him and touched him inappropriately.

Lynch was the head coach of the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos in the mid-1980s and the WHL’s Regina Pats later that decade. His coaching career also included a stop with the under-18 Regina Pat Canadians in the late ’90s.

He also was the head coach of the Fort Frances (Ont.) Lakers, a junior A club in the Superior International Junior Hockey League. The Fort Frances Lakers Hockey Association suspended Lynch in January of 2021 after learning of what it called “inappropriate communications from Mr. Lynch to a player.”

Lynch was later fired.

Before becoming the Lakers’ head coach, Lynch coached the Edson (Alta.) Aeros. Accusations also were made about Lynch during his time there and his contract with that team was not renewed.