Harry Charles Sadd will serve another six years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts of sexual assault involving six boys.
The 73-year-old former badminton coach was handcuffed and led from the courtroom Monday as four of his victims looked on.
Sadd showed no reaction as the sentence was read for the offences, which occurred between 1970 and 1985. His eight-year sentence was reduced to six years and eight months after credit for time served was figured in.
One of the victims, who spoke to the media outside court, said he came forward because he wants to prevent what happened to him from happening to another child. His name and the names of other victims in the case are subject to a publication ban.
The 51-year-old said his primary concern is raising awareness of the dangers of predators. “I saved a kid today [by speaking out],” he said. “I don’t know what kid I saved, but I saved a kid today.”
He was the first of Sadd’s victims to talk to police, a move he said was inspired by the courage of NHLers Theo Fleury and Sheldon Kennedy in sharing their stores of being abused as youth.
“I thought if they can come forward, I can come forward,” he said. “Theo Fleury is about my size. Tough little guy like that guy can come forward, I figured I could, too.”
Now an electrician living in Ottawa, he said he was nine when the abuse by Sadd started. Sadd, a family friend, took advantage of him after his stepfather died in a car crash, he said. “He pounced on it — single mother.”
Camping trips with Sadd, where abuse occurred, followed. Sadd was also able to meet boys through being a badminton coach and through his church, and hired boys to work in his painting business.
While he is relieved by Sadd’s sentence, he said the number of years matters less than helping to raise awareness of the dangers of child sexual abuse.
“I don’t know if I would have been happy with one year or 50 years,” he said. “I really want to be clear. The reason why I came forward is to not let this happen to somebody else.
“I was a normal kid. It happened to me. It happened to my friends.”
He said it has been “a long journey” and the memories never go away. “I do think about it every day.”
He has flown out to Victoria twice in the past two weeks “to see that guy get the cuffs on,” he said. “[Sadd] deserves to be where he is.”
While what happened to him as a boy deeply affected his life, he has been able to function as an adult and to talk to his family and friends about the past, he said. “I don’t know how I’m normal actually, sometimes.”
He was able to get through the trial, he said, in part because of help from Crown prosecutors, Victoria police and his “brothers” who were also victims, noting a few of them stay in touch.
During Sadd’s sentencing hearing, Crown lawyers called for a 10-year sentence and the defence said it should be two years less a day, followed by three years’ probation.
Victoria provincial court Judge Adrian Brooks noted that psychological reports indicated Sadd showed limited remorse for or insight into his crimes, and maintained his victims were not harmed by his behaviour.
