In a pre-arranged joint plea bargain, Convicted pedophile Graham James pleads guilty to new charges involving a player he once coached in junior hockey.
The new, and third James investigation began after the investigators received a complaint in September 2013. The new charges were brought last month after allegations of repeated sexual assault on a player with the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Hockey League.
The prosecution and defense have presented a joint plea bargain that requests two years be added onto the five-year sentence James is almost finished serving on other sex crime convictions.
James appeared via closed-circuit TV in a Saskatchewan courtroom today as the plea agreement was presented to the court.
James served 3 1/2 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in 1997 to sex offences against former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy and two others. Kennedy played for the Broncos at the time of the assaults.
He was back in court facing new charges a few years later when Todd Holt and his cousin, retired Calgary Flames star Theo Fleury, came forward with a new set of allegations. James pleaded guilty to those charges, and was initially sentenced to two years in 2012. An Appeals Court increased the sentence to five years, and will likely see that sentence increased by two years as a result of this latest proceeding.
Joe Hughes
