Former Hockey Coach Indicted in Past Sexual Assaults on Young Player

BOSTON, Oct. 14, 2015—A once-prominent hockey coach has been indicted for allegedly sexually assaulting a young player during the 1990s, a series of offenses that the victim disclosed to authorities for the first time last year, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

The indictments, returned Sept. 30, charge ROBERT RICHARDSON (D.O.B. 12/8/53) of Dorchester with three counts of rape of a child for offenses beginning in 1991, when the victim was 13 years old. He will be arraigned tomorrow in the Magistrate’s Session of Suffolk Superior Court.

Prosecutors say Richardson secured an opportunity for the young victim to play for a prestigious local youth hockey team. At about the same time, he began inviting the boy to spend several nights a week at the defendant’s home, where the abuse took place.

The victim disclosed the abuse to a family member while he was still in his teens. As a result of that disclosure and subsequent conversations, the victim’s high school coach asked the defendant to end his informal participation with the team. In 2014, the victim approached law enforcement to report the abuse, leading to an investigation by Boston Police detectives and Suffolk prosecutors.

Sexual assault can happen to anyone. While the victims of any crime should call 911 in an emergency, survivors of sexual violence in Suffolk County can also call the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center’s 24-hour hotline at 800-841-8371. The Boston Area Rape Crisis Center provides medical advocacy, legal services, counseling, and other services to victims of rape and sexual assault.

Assistant District Attorney David Deakin, chief of the DA’s Family Protection and Sexual Assault Bureau, led the grand jury investigation resulting in Richardson’s indictment. Kate Lagana is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate.

 

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.