Crown urges 3-year sentence for Bernard 'Bernie' Lynch, former junior hockey coach convicted of sexual assault

Warning: this story contains details of a sexual assault.

The sexual assault of a hockey prospect in August 1988 ruined the teenager's health, relationships and ended his dream of becoming a professional hockey player, a judge at the Court of King's Bench in Regina was told Thursday. 

The lasting impacts on Bernard "Bernie" Lynch's victim were serious enough that the former junior hockey coach should be sentenced to three years in a federal penitentiary, Crown prosecutor Chris White argued before Justice Peter Bergbusch during the sentencing hearing.

"He used his position as a coach, and the bonafides that came with it, to coerce [the complainant] into doing something he would not have done otherwise," White said. 

Defence lawyer Andrew Hitchcock argued that his client should receive a sentence between 18 months and two years in the provincial system. 

Lynch was found guilty of sexual assault and assault in December for inappropriately touching and then hitting the player, 17, while working as an assistant coach for the Western Hockey League's Regina Pats.

Lynch had pleaded not guilty to both charges and testified in his own defence that the events described by the complaint never happened. 

Any information identifying the two Crown witnesses called during the trial — the complainant and his then-girlfriend — is protected under a publication ban.

The complainant delivered an emotional victim impact statement Thursday, describing a life where "he lived on the rink" and where he dreamed of playing hockey professionally.

"Hockey was my life, [but] two days in August changed all that. Bernie Lynch changed all that," the complainant said.

The complainant described feeling a tremendous amount of guilt after the assault, as