Warning: this story contains graphic content which may upset some readers. If you have experienced sexual abuse, the Archway Society for Domestic Peace is available for support at archwaysociety.ca and 250-542-1122
A woman alleged to have been sexually assaulted by her hockey coach is recounting her experience once again.
The victim, whose identity is protected, is back in Vernon Supreme Court Monday, May 27, detailing her younger days on the ice.
The accused, Keith Chase, has pleaded not guilty to a sexual assault alleged to have taken place in 2004.
Chase was charged in 2020, found guilty in 2022 and sentenced to two years in 2023. But he successfully appealed the conviction and his new trial is currently underway.
Vernon North Okanagan RCMP Const. Shaun Miranda was the first witness called.
A member since 2017 in Vernon, Miranda said he took the call from the victim Feb. 7, 2020 when she reported it to police.
He took her statement the following day, where she alleged the incident took place the night before a hockey game in Kamloops.
The victim also took the stand Monday, explaining how she knew Chase since she played ringette at age five or six and later hockey.
“He would run our practices, get us organized for games, give us motivational talks, be a leader, someone we looked up to.”
Now 37, she described in detail the alleged incident that took place when she was 16 at Chase’s Coldstream residence.
“I remember him putting his mouth on my mouth and kissing me for a period of time,” she said of the evening incident when she was in the kitchen getting a drink of water. “I remember his facial hair on my face, I can feel it.
“I smelled booze and I know that he liked to drink.”
She doesn’t recall details such as dates, or what she was doing leading up to the event, except that she was friends with Chase’s daughter and was sleeping over before travelling to Kamloops the next day for a playoff game.
She continued to detail how he allegedly touched her with his fingers and his mouth between her legs.
Feeling ashamed and scared, she said the next day their team lost their playoff game, ending their season.
“After the game Keith brought me across the hallway to a smaller changing room and told me that what happened wasn’t good and we need to keep it Keith and [my] secret.”
She broke down after the game when she saw her dad, but didn’t tell anyone anything.
“I felt scared and bad about that, about what happened. What would my family think? What would people think? What would they think of me? Was it my fault? How did that happen? Why would that happen? How did I let that happen?”
In 2008, after dropping out of not one, but two university hockey scholarships and “making poor choices,” she told her parents.
Owning a local business, and knowing Chase also owned a business, the parents, she said, “expressed that might not be a good thing to have it become public.”
Instead, she said they worked on helping her.
“They wanted to get me in the right headspace, they wanted to focus on healing their daughter.”
Her testimony, along with that of her father, is continuing with the trial expected to last two to three days.
Visit vernonmorningstar.com for updates.
READ MORE: Former Vernon hockey coach’s appeal of sexual assault conviction underway
READ MORE: Former Vernon hockey coach guilty of sexual assault
