Canadian Usher Gordon Stuckless Pleads Guilty to 100 Sex Abuse Charges
Canadian usher Gordon Stuckless has pleaded guilty to 100 charges of sexual abuse which involves 18 victims.
Mr Stuckless made the alleged offences decades back. However, he entered the plea only on Tuesday, April 22, 2014. According to Crown attorney Kelly Beale, the charges against Stuckless include sexual assault, gross indecency and indecent assault. It was in 1997 that Stuckless got convicted for sex assaults on 24 boys during his tenure as an usher at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto from 1969 to 1988, CTV News reported.
Stuckless returned to the limelight once again when police placed fresh charges against him in relation with his past activities of alleged assault in earlier decades. York Region police and Toronto police conducted separate investigations related to the charges against Stuckless. The individual investigations were eventually merged together.
Stuckless earlier pleaded not guilty to numerous charges which included buggery and sexual assault with a weapon. Ari Goldkind, Stuckless' lawyer, said that he was expecting to get a trial on those charges underway in the coming weeks. Mr Beale, on the other hand, may request a dangerous offender assessment for Stuckless; National Post reported. According to Goldkind, Stuckless has been going through chemical castration therapy and living a "law-abiding life."
Goldkind further said that Stuckless had ceased to be a danger to the society since 2001. He said that Stuckless did not come even close to being a "dangerous offender" if he was treated in a "lawful" manner rather than in a "vengeful" way. Allan Donnan, who happens to be one of the victims of Stuckless' sexual abuse, begs to differ with Goldkind. Donnan said that Stuckless had been calculative on his sexual abuse for 30 years. There is no proof that Stuckless did not abuse anyone since he was released from jail, he said.
Martin Kruze was the first one to accuse Stuckless of sexual abuse. He said in 1997 that he had been abused by Stuckless since he was eight. He said that he, among several other hockey-admiring kids, was lured by Stuckless with player autographs, hockey sticks and free tickets. Kruze committed suicide a couple of days after Stuckless was sentenced in 1997.