Gymnastics coach pleads guilty to sexual assault

WARNING: This article contains details about child sexual abuse.

A former gymnastics coach who worked in Ottawa and Kingston, Ontario, has pleaded guilty to sex crimes against children and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Benjamin Cooper, 28, pleaded guilty in Ottawa on Tuesday to five charges related to four victims. Their identities are protected by a publication ban.

Cooper pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault and one count of possession of child pornography. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of assault after a third count of sexual assault was reduced to the lesser charge. The offenses occurred between 2014 and 2022.

According to the agreed statement of facts by prosecutor Louise Tansey, Gymnastics Ontario informed Ottawa police of the complaints against Cooper in 2022, triggering the investigation.

Cooper initially faced a total of 19 charges relating to seven victims, all of whom were entitled to give victim impact statements under an agreed statement of facts. The remaining charges were stayed.

Six of these victims, including one who was 11 years old when Cooper began training her, gave statements in court describing how they were set up and manipulated by him.

“A disgrace for gymnastics”

The agreed statement of facts describes how Cooper, as a coach or substitute coach, contacted young girls and exchanged private messages or text messages via Snapchat that contained sexually explicit videos and photographs.

Tansey noticed that one of the girls was seven years younger than Cooper and another was almost four and a half years younger.

One of the young women said she came forward because she could no longer bear the thought of Cooper abusing young girls at another gymnastics club.

“You are a disgrace to gymnastics,” she said in her statement as a victim.

The young woman said Cooper began “brainwashing” her when she was 15, starting with social media messages about gymnastics that then became more personal.

She called him a threat to the community and children and accused him of taking away her innocence and part of her youth. She said she did not want to see herself as a victim, but as a survivor of his manipulation and abuse.

Cooper’s crimes occurred between 2014 and 2022 while he worked at gymnastics clubs in Ottawa and Kingston, Ontario. (Natacha Pisarenko/The Associated Press)

Another young woman described finding her calling as a young girl in competitive gymnastics at the Ottawa club, where she met Cooper. She said she now flinches when she is touched and has started drinking to cope with the trauma.

“You, Ben Cooper, did this to me, and you had no right to do it,” she said in her prepared statement, speaking at times through tears. “You took an innocent, inspired little girl and reduced her to nothing with your power and manipulation.”

“I will forget you,” she swore.

Cooper kept his gaze straight ahead throughout the trial. More than a dozen young women were present in the courtroom.

Some described having to deal with the guilt and shame they felt about being abused by a coach they trusted as an authority figure.

“You are not sorry for what you did, you are sorry you got caught,” another person said in their victim statement.

Sentenced to 4 years

Cooper stood to address the court before the judge announced his verdict.

“I am sorry to all of you for causing so much pain,” he said. “In the future, I will do everything I can to be a better person.”

He briefly turned to the audience and said: “I am truly sorry.”

The prosecution and defence submitted a joint statement to Ontario Superior Court Justice Norman Boxall regarding sentencing.

Cooper’s lawyer Dominic Lamb pointed out that this was the first time that criminal charges had been brought against his client.

Lamb also noted that Cooper’s lifelong involvement in gymnastics would now end because of his actions. He said Cooper was on his way to completing his law degree at Queen’s University at the time of his arrest, a career that is now barred from him.

Tansey said no verdict could undo the “waves of damage” Cooper inflicted on his victims, his colleagues and the sport of gymnastics.

Cooper used gymnastics as a means to gain access to his victims, she said. “He used his role to stalk them outside of the gym as well.”

She said the women who stood up for justice embodied the true ideals of sport.

Gymnastics Ontario reported complaints about Cooper to Ottawa police, according to the agreed statement of facts at trial. (Shutterstock/sportpoint)

In his verdict, Boxall also praised the women for lobbying for the investigation to be launched and thanked them for their victim impact statements. He accepted the joint motion from the prosecution and defence.

In addition to his prison sentence, Cooper will be required to register as a sex offender, provide a DNA sample, and have no contact with certain individuals involved in the case.

Among other things, he is not allowed to enter gymnasiums or other leisure facilities where children under 16 are present for ten years and is not allowed to communicate with children under 16 who are not related to him, and only in the presence of another adult.