SALEM — A former private hockey coach in Marblehead pleaded guilty Monday morning to child rape and more than a dozen other charges related to the sexual abuse of eight boys — boys a judge called "heroic" for their willingness to come forward and likely spare other boys from being abused.
Christopher Prew, 34, of Winthrop, was sentenced to 13 to 15 years in state prison by Salem Superior Court Judge James Lang. He's expected to enter into a plea involving a ninth boy in Newton at a future date, his lawyer told the judge. That case is being handled by Middlesex County prosecutors.
Prew, said Lang, "grossly abused his position of trust" among the boys and their families, some of whom had hired Prew to teach their sons hockey and others who encountered Prew during hockey-related events in town. Lang told the families of the boys, as well as Prew's family, "there is no mitigation." "Their sense of personal betrayal surely makes these offenses all the more egregious," Lang said. But the judge praised the boys, one of whom was present in court, for their courage in being willing to testify.
Prew's crimes occurred between 2016 and the time of his arrest in February 2018, and involved boys — most of them from Marblehead, one from Quebec — who were ages 7 to 13. Prew "emerged" in Marblehead, prosecutor Kate MacDougall told the judge, in 2016 and quickly insinuated himself into the small community of hockey parents — as he'd also done in Newton prior to that. He'd briefly worked in a town afterschool program and ran hockey camps. MacDougall described how Prew began to reach out to certain families, "friending" them on social media and sending messages to parents — mostly single moms or caretakers — soliciting their families.
He'd offer to work with the boys on hockey skills, to mentor them in the absence of a father figure.
He'd offer to babysit or drive the boys to practices, giving him, said the prosecutor, "unfettered access to these children." He rented a condo from one parent — who told the judge that her own mother expressed her concerns about Prew when she realized he was not paying her a dime of rent. MacDougall said it was at the condo near downtown Marblehead where Prew, in the guise of watching a movie with one boy, put a blanket over both of them, and then proceeded to rape the child, one of multiple incidents involving that boy, who was 9 and 10 at the time.
Other victims described to investigators how Prew would also have them come to the condo or take advantage of moments he was left alone at their homes, or in one case, a Peabody ice rink. Another victim, from Quebec, Canada, had been an eager participant in an annual hockey exchange. He was staying in the home of boys who were being coached by Prew. But in 2017, he disclosed, Prew, on the pretext of going to the bedroom to say goodnight, reached under the covers, said the prosecutor. The plea, to one count of aggravated child rape, 14 counts of indecent assault and battery on a child and one count of attempted indecent assault and battery on a child, came on the morning that jury selection was to have gotten underway in the Ruane Judicial Center in Salem.
Prew will receive credit for the 3 1/2 years he's already spent in custody awaiting trial. After his release, he will be on probation for 10 years, with conditions that include no contact with any of the victims or their families, staying out of the town of Marblehead, a GPS monitoring bracelet, no work with children whether paid or volunteer, no unsupervised contact with children or teenagers under 16, sex offender and mental health evaluations and treatment, and registration as a sex offender. Prew is also potentially subject to the possibility of civil commitment as a sexually dangerous person following the completion of his prison term.
