Theo Fleury to visit Fort McMurray after minor hockey coach charged
CBC News | Posted: December 6, 2018 12:05 AM | Last Updated: December 6, 2018
Former Calgary Flames player says he will visit city next week to offer his help
Former NHL hockey star Theo Fleury says he will visit Fort McMurray next week, just days after a minor hockey coach in the city was charged with sexual offences.
On Monday, police said a 31-year-old minor hockey coach in Alberta's oilsands city had been charged with three sexual offences.
The next day, Fleury offered his help to the community, writing on Twitter that he was "available to come up and speak to the survivors if you need me."
On Wednesday, the former Calgary Flames player confirmed he will be in Fort McMurray on Dec. 12.
He declined CBC's interview request, and said he is focused instead on helping those impacted. He did confirm he will visit the city to offer his assistance.
Minor hockey coach Steven Charles Adams, 31, has been charged with child luring, sexual assault and sexual exploitation, RCMP said Monday in a news release.
The charges resulted from alleged misconduct while Adams was a volunteer coach with Fort McMurray Minor Hockey in 2018, police said.
Fleury won a Stanley Cup with the Flames in 1989 and a gold medal with Canada's Olympic men's hockey team in 2002.
In his 2009 autobiography, Playing with Fire, he revealed he had been sexually abused by a junior hockey coach and said he hoped his story would help others come forward.
He struggled for years with addictions to drugs and alcohol.
Recently he tweeted about why it's important for sexual assault victims to speak up.
"People are afraid to out these people, he wrote. "Pedophiles love silence. They love doubt. They have power. They have the trust of people they work for."