A hockey coach was convicted by the Leuven correctional court on Tuesday for the rape of minors from an indoor hockey club.
The coach, now 44-years-old, has received an eight-year prison sentence for raping at least four male minors between the years of 2010 and 2016.
The abuse came to light in 2016 when six civil parties filed a complaint on behalf of two of the victims.
The coach abused his authority, according to the public prosecutor. "If the victims did not accept his advances, he threatened that they would never get into the first team," the public prosecutor explained.
The parties behind the claim were awarded on Tuesday a total compensation of €34,365.15.
The court denied the public prosecutor's request for the immediate arrest of the 44-year-old man.
Evie McCullough
The Brussels Times
