A former youth coach facing voyeurism and child porn charges has been found guilty of breaching his bail conditions by visiting Queen’s Park Arena in New Westminster twice last December.
Randy Downes, 59, was spotted in the lobby of the rink on Dec. 21 and in the “east dressing room tunnel” on Dec. 22 by a maintenance supervisor who knew him, according to court documents.
The incidents were reported to police, and Downes was arrested on Dec. 23.
Downes, who has coached various age groups in youth hockey and baseball in Burnaby, Coquitlam, Richmond, Vancouver and Surrey for 30 years, had been out on bail after being charged in October 2016 with one count of possession of child pornography, four counts of secretly recording or observing nudity in a private place and four counts of making or publishing child pornography.
(Police said they had no evidence Downes had had sexual contact with any of the children involved.)
As a condition of his release, he had been banned from attending “any public park or public swimming area where persons under the age of 16 are present or can be reasonably expected to be present.”
At a recent hearing in B.C. Provincial Court in Port Coquitlam, Downes admitted to having been at Queens Park on Dec. 21 and 22 last year, according to court documents, but he said he did not consider the parts of the park he visited (the arena) to be truly a park or a place where kids under the age of 16 were present or could reasonably have been expected to be present.
Downes told the court he had gone to Queens Park Arena in the afternoon to walk on the walkway at the top of the stands for exercise. He also took a shower at the rink on Dec. 22.
He said he had made a point of looking around the facilities to make sure no kids were there.
But Crown prosecutor Gail Barnes argued the fact Downes had made a point of checking to make sure no kids were at the arena supported the idea it was a place children could reasonably have been expected to be.
She asked Downes whether he would go to a pub and look around to see if kids were there.
He said no.
“I wouldn't even think about looking for kids in a pub,” he said.
“So, if he's looking for them, that means he could reasonably expect them to be present and he's looking to see if they are,” Barnes argued.
Judge Thomas Woods agreed.
“He ‘did look for kids’ at Queen’s Park on the offence dates; he did ‘think about looking for kids’ there because, I am satisfied, he ‘reasonably expected’ them to be there,” he stated in a Nov. 10 ruling.
Woods also rejected the idea that Downe’s reasons for visiting the Queens Park Arena had been “innocent,” that he had gone there to walk in the arena stands as part of his exercise regime and then shower before leaving to visit friends.
“He sought to persuade the court that exercising this way at the arena was something he did with some frequency,” Woods stated, “yet Crown witnesses who are routinely present there and know Mr. Downes to see him do not recall seeing him walking the perimeter walkway, ever. Neither do they recall anyone other than scheduled players and referees ever taking a shower at the arena without asking permission beforehand.”
Woods found Downes guilty on both counts.
The former coach had already served seven days in custody, and Woods did not sentence him to more time in jail.
Downes’s voyeurism and child pornography trial is set for the spring of 2018 in B.C. Supreme Court.
