A veteran hockey and baseball coach, with ties to Richmond youth sports, is facing nine criminal charges relating to child pornography and voyeurism.
Randy Downes, 59, of Coquitlam, has been involved with youth sports across Metro Vancouver for more than 30 years, Coquitlam RCMP announced Tuesday afternoon.
He has coached and managed various levels of hockey and baseball since the 1990s and photographed hockey, baseball and soccer.
According to the Richmond Minor Hockey Association’s (RMHA) Facebook page, Downes was named head coach of the organization’s atom A1 team for the 2014/15 season.
The posting, in May 2014, added that Downes brought a “wealth of coaching experience and success to our organization...”
It’s unclear how long Downes coached in Richmond, but it’s understood he’s no longer with RMHA. Carolyn Hart, RMHA president, referred The News to the BC Hockey Association, which is commenting on behalf of hockey associations that may have been involved with Downes.
BC Hockey indicated the RCMP has said that it appears there are no links between Downes’ alleged victims and hockey and that he has been suspended from hockey activities.
Police investigators are now hoping to hear from parents and those who were coached by Downes, to determine whether any of the images found in his computer were of those he coached.
“It’s definitely a possibility,” Const. Jamie Phillipson, of Coquitlam RCMP, said with regard to the photos.
“Thirty years is a long time, so we want to make sure if there were any incidents in the last three decades that people have the ability to come forward to the police now.”
The evidence suggests the suspect did not have sexual contact with the children and that they did not know they were being photographed, Phillipson said.
The images related to the criminal charges were mixed in with Downes’ professional sports photos but were taken in a public setting that meets the threshold for voyeurism and child pornography, he added.
“If there’s a specific focus on a child’s body part in a public setting, even clothed, it does meet the threshold for child pornography if you can prove that it was for a sexual purpose,” Phillipson said.
The charges were approved Tuesday morning after a six-month investigation that started with a tip from the BC Integrated Child Exploitation Unit.
In late April, Coquitlam RCMP’s Sex Crimes Unit investigators executed a search warrant at a home where they seized digital devices containing a large quantity of images of children.
Phillipson would not reveal anything about the nature of the photographs, including the ages or genders of the children pictured, nor where they were taken.
He also defended the length of time it took for police to reveal the information, even though Downes was serving as the president of Coquitlam-Moody Minor Baseball Association and coaching teams up to and including this summer.
“Investigators conduct a continuous risk assessment and determined there was no imminent risk to public safety,” Phillipson said, noting the investigation was not divulged to local sports associations the suspect was involved with until the charges were formally approved on Tuesday.
Coquitlam-Moody, Baseball BC and BC (Minor) Baseball released a joint statement confirming they just learned of the charges. Downes has been suspended from all baseball, volunteer and board activity, effective immediately, according to the statement, noting he has been suspended from his role as president of the CMMBA and his access to the internal Bonzi site has been revoked.
“After consulting with the RCMP, we have no information on any individual alleged victims involved with baseball,” the statement read. “Should we become aware of any individual potential victims, we will try to assist them in accessing all appropriate resources.”
The statement confirms Downes had fulfilled the organizations’ criminal record check requirements.
In August 2015 Downes coached the Coquitlam-Port Moody Reds to a silver medal in the Canadian national peewee AAA under-13 baseball championships in Repentigny, Que.
And in the summer of 2012 he was at the helm when Team B.C., a peewee select team, lodged a historic win at the Continental Amateur Baseball Association World Series tournament in Ohio; they were the first Canadian team to win the nearly 30-year-old tournament.
Phillipson did not provide specifics regarding where Downes was coaching and when but said investigators have reached out to Baseball BC and Hockey Canada for assistance.
“We fully expect we’re going to hear from parents and we’re encouraging that, but we’re also encouraging that if there has been any suspicious behaviour or incidents over the years that were not reported, this is the time to come forward to the police and share that information,” he said.
Downes faces four counts of making child pornography, one count of possession of child pornography and four counts of voyeurism.
Anyone with information that may help further the investigation by identifying potential victims and witnesses is asked to contact investigators at [email protected] or by calling police at 604-945-1550 and quoting file number 2016-9938, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or www.solvecrime.ca.
