Former coach of Canadian under-20 women's soccer team pleads guilty to sexual assault

A former head coach of both the Vancouver Whitecaps women's team and Canadian under-20 women's soccer team has pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault and one count of touching a young person for a sexual purpose.

Bob Birarda entered guilty pleas in court in North Vancouver, B.C., on Tuesday morning to charges spanning from 1988 to 2006, involving four separate victims.

Birarda appeared through a video link from his lawyer's downtown office and sat with his hands clasped together as a judge read each of the four charges to him.

"I plead guilty, your honour," Birarda said in response to the judge.

A parting of ways

Birarda will be sentenced later this year after a pair of court-ordered reports are prepared to assess his future risk of offending.

The judge set a date of Feb. 15 for a next appearance to fix a date for sentencing and ordered both reports to be completed by April 5.

The identity of the victims is protected by a publication ban. CBC has learned that all are former soccer players.

Birarda was initially charged with nine offences, but those were substituted Tuesday for a charge sheet containing 10 counts, including invitation to sexual touching and communicating via a computer to lure a child under the age of 18.

No pleas were entered on the remaining counts, which will likely be stayed or dismissed at the time of sentencing.

Birarda's lawyer, William Smart, sat to his left side. Birarda, who wore an open-necked shirt and a suit jacket as he entered the pleas, appeared nervous. At one point, he took notes.

Smart waived the reading of the charges to his client, but the Crown prosecutor insisted that each count be read out loud.

Birarda almost certainly faces jail time. Touching a young person for a sexual purpose draws a minimum sentence of one year and a maximum of 14 years behind bars.

In 2008, Birarda was quietly let go from his dual positions as head coach for the under-20 women's national team and the Whitecaps women's team, after players complained of inappropriate behaviour.

At the time, Canada Soccer characterized his departure as a mutually agreed upon parting of ways.

Within months, he was coaching girls at a club team in the Tsawwassen area of Delta, B.C.

'Grateful for the women who stepped forward'

In February 2019, Birarda was suspended from coaching at Surrey, B.C., club Coastal FC after a former player wrote a blog post called "A Horrific Canadian Soccer Story."

The author of the blog, former Whitecaps player Ciara McCormack, told the CBC Tuesday she wrote the post about a man she called "Coach Billy" after watching in frustration as Birarda was allowed to keep coaching for years after he was cut from the under-20 coaching spot.

She said she is currently in Asia on holiday, but woke up to dozens of text messages about Birarda's guilty plea. She said it comes after years of struggle for his victims to be heard.

"I'm just really really grateful for the women who stepped forward," she said.

"What's scary to me is just how many more people like him are there out there, and that they have full, unfettered access to vulnerable athletes. They put themselves in positions of power. That's how they're able to cause harm."

McCormack, a safe sport advocate, says she wonders how many other people like Birarda are out there.

In the months following the blog post's publication, former Team Canada players alleged Birarda had sent sexualized text messages and made sexual comments to players, touched players inappropriately and used his position of power to make sexual advances.

In 2019, the Whitecaps hired Sport Law and Strategy Group Ltd. to conduct an investigation after fans staged mass walkouts of Whitecaps men's games in support of the female players, demanding accountability from executives at the club and Canada Soccer for past decisions that ignored player safety.

Last fall, Major League Soccer announced the hiring of a law firm to investigate the Whitecaps' handling of both Birarda and another former women's team coach, Hubert Busby, Jr.

Busby was quietly let go from his job as Whitecaps women's team head coach in 2011 after players brought complaints to club executives. Players were told not to speak publicly about his dismissal.

Former Whitecaps player Malloree Enoch went public last fall with allegations that Busby sexually coerced and assaulted her while he was recruiting her to the Whitecaps in 2010 and 2011. Busby has denied the allegations.