Graham James plea opens Winnipegger's old wounds

Graham James' guilty plea to sex assaults is stirring up old pain in another one of his former hockey players in Winnipeg.

"He (James) needs psychiatric treatment," said Paul Buchanan, who was a star forward for the James-coached junior A Fort Garry Blues in the 1980s.

"Jail doesn't do anything for that kind of abnormal behaviour. He's sick."

James, 59, pleaded guilty Wednesday in a Winnipeg federal courtroom — via video link from Montreal — to repeated sexual assaults on two former players (one of whom was future NHL star Theoren Fleury) during a period between 1983 and 1994.

The other junior player cannot be identified under a court-ordered publication ban.

James had been facing nine charges involving three complainants, but the charges in the third case were stayed as part of the plea bargain.

That complainant, John Greg Gilhooly, told CBC News on Wednesday that he is upset about not getting the closure he wanted.

I'm taking one for the team in terms of being the one who's left out. I'm no hero here — this is just something I have to deal with," he said.

Gilhooly was a goalie for the bantam St. James Canadians in Winnipeg, when he was recruited by James at a hockey tournament in 1979.

James made advances

Buchanan was also a member of those Blues. At 16, he was the only player his age to make the junior squad and James took a distinct interest in him, asking him to go to movies and visit his house.

But Buchanan turned down James' advances.

As a result, he went from being the star of the team to being shunned and benched. As a result, he returned to play for his midget team.

"In his eyes I completely betrayed him. I went from being his favourite to someone he hated," Buchanan said.

"And I just didn't understand it. I went from really liking him and thinking, 'jeez, he's very interested in me' to all of a sudden 'this guy's mad at me and I didn't even do anything.'"

Buchanan said he believes he dodged a bullet but even so, his confidence was destroyed.

The following year, when Buchanan was old enough to graduate up to the junior ranks, James was still coaching and benched him again.

Frustrated, Buchanan quit hockey after Christmas at the age of 17.

After coaching junior A hockey from 1979 to 1983, James became head scout for the Winnipeg Warriors of the Western Hockey League in 1984. That's when he recruited two future NHLers to the team — Fleury and Sheldon Kennedy.

The team later relocated to Moose Jaw as the Moose Jaw Warriors and James was hired as head coach. He later became coach and general manager of the Swift Current Broncos from 1986 to 1994.

The team won the Memorial Cup in 1989, and in the same year James was named Man of the Year by The Hockey News.

James' sentencing hearing on the two guilty pleas will take place on Feb. 22, 2012, in Winnipeg. He has already served almost two years in jail in the late 1990s for assaulting three young hockey players, including Kennedy.

James pleaded guilty to those sexual assault charges in 1997 and served about two years in jail before being released.

Apology needed

Buchanan said James needs to apologize to all the children whose lives he impacted negatively, but believes his former coach is still trying to wield power over some of them.

Buchanan said James is willing to publicly plead guilty to abusing players such as Kennedy and Fleury because he sees it as some kind of twisted accomplishment as a result of their success in the NHL.

"It doesn't sound very good to say he targeted Greg Gilhooly," said Buchanan. "But he still wants to be one up on Greg Gilhooly, who had the guts to finally come forward after all those years of torment.

"You know, it took him 30 years and a lot of courage to come forward and he's being told that, basically he's being told, that he made it up. Like that's pathetic."

Gilhooly, now a corporate lawyer in Ontario, was remarkably composed on Wednesday, given that his allegations against James will remain unproven in a court of law.

No more power

He said James holds no more power over him. In fact, it is Gilhooly who has some influence and is in a position "to make good of bad in this situation" by offering advice and encouragement.

He noted he didn't come from a broken home, poverty, or some other hardship. And he wasn't a child sent off to live the life of the itinerant hockey star.

"I was very much the boy living next door living in what to all appearances was a comfortable family situation — and still was vulnerable to a predator."

As for his message to other silent, tormented victims of childhood abuse out there, Gilhooly is brutally frank.

"It's difficult to say without appearing selfish," he said, but victims of sex abuse have to do whatever they feel is best for themselves at the moment, even if that means not wanting to tell someone right away.

"Remember, this isn't the first opportunity that I've had to come forward," Gilhooly said, recalling the inner turmoil he faced when Kennedy made the first, public allegations against James in 1996.

"Let's not lose sight of the fact that the real hero here is Sheldon Kennedy, who came forward 15 years ago when none of us were coming forward," said Gilhooly. "He had to take all of this on his own."

Gilhooly kept his secret until well after the 2003 death of his father, who was a senior executive with Manitoba minor hockey.

"I don't think my father could have survived knowing that people he trusted were, in many ways, facilitating what it was that Graham was doing," he said.