Former B.C. hockey coach and Victoria jail guard sentenced for child luring

The waterfront area of Port Alberni, B.C., is seen in a stock image taken in March 2020. (Shutterstock)

A former Vancouver Island hockey coach, who would go on to serve as a special constable with the Victoria Police Department, has been sentenced to 12 months in jail for child luring.

Foster Chadwick Martin was 20 years old when he was charged with sexual assault, sexual touching, luring a minor and extortion related to his interactions with a 15-year-old girl at a hockey camp in Port Alberni, B.C., in 2020.

At trial last December, Martin was convicted of only the child-luring charge after provincial court Judge Ronald Lamperson found the prosecution failed to prove the other allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.

The court heard that Martin was employed as an assistant coach at the West Coast Hockey Prep Camp, a highly regarded four-week summer training camp for elite young players on Vancouver Island.

Martin began communicating with the 15-year-old victim—a camp attendee—through a series of sexual messages on Instagram and Snapchat, the judge found.

The offender rejected the idea that there was anything sexual about the messages and denied arranging to meet the teen for a sexual encounter, despite contrary evidence and testimony from the victim and her friend.

In his sentencing decision, which was delivered last month but only recently published online, Lamperson found evidence the victim did attend the arena to meet Martin for the planned encounter. However, the judge wrote, “I was left with a reasonable doubt as to whether any sexual activity occurred.”

Employment as Victoria jail guard

At the time of his arrest in November 2022, Martin was working as a special constable with the Victoria Police Department, serving as a jail guard for the police holding cells. In 2021, while in that role, Martin faced an internal Victoria police investigation into discreditable conduct and deceit after he allegedly recorded and shared videos of prisoners engaging in sexual acts.

Following the investigation, Martin received a two-day suspension without pay. B.C.’s police complaint commissioner later ordered a review after finding he had “knowingly provided false and misleading information” to investigators.

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A psychiatrist who testified at Martin’s hearing reported that the offender had no history of mental health problems or substance use disorders.

At the time the charges were laid, Martin had an active application to become an RCMP officer, a career path the judge described as Martin’s lifelong dream.

“No doubt his criminal conviction for luring a minor will preclude him from becoming a police officer and will likely limit his other career options,” Lamperson wrote.

Abuse of trust and authority

The psychiatrist assessed Martin as posing little risk to reoffend but cautioned that his “lack of insight and understanding related to appropriateness of relationships with underage individuals is considered a potential risk.”

Martin stood to address the court during the sentencing hearing, apologizing to his former employer and others affected by the incident and the subsequent legal proceedings.

The victim, in her own testimony, told how her encounter with Martin had “negatively impacted her mental health, her relationships, and her goals and dreams associated with hockey,” the court heard.

Martin abused his position of trust as a coach in an effort to sexually gratify himself at the expense of a minor, the judge wrote in his assessment of the aggravating factors in the sentencing decision.

Crown prosecutors argued Martin had specifically groomed the victim for the offence, and asked the judge to impose a 12- to 18-month custodial sentence, followed by at least a year of probation. The prosecution also sought a weapons prohibition, a no-contact order with the victim and registration with the national sex offender registry.

Defence sought house arrest

Martin’s defence counsel argued for a conditional sentence, or house arrest, with no probation. The defence opposed Martin’s registry on the sex offender list and argued that if a jail sentence was ultimately deemed necessary, it should be sorter than 12 months.

Lamperson was not swayed by the argument. He wrote that although Martin had been free in the community under supervision since his arrest, his abuse of trust as a coach for an aspiring hockey prospect heightened the offence’s seriousness.

The judge noted the hockey camp’s head coach was also a coach on the University of B.C.’s women’s team. “I accept that (the victim) aspired to play for that team one day,” Lamperson wrote.

“Whether or not she was correct, I also accept (the victim’s) evidence that she believed Mr. Martin could have had some influence on her chances of eventually playing hockey at a higher level,” he added.

Mitigating factors considered by the judge included Martin’s lack of a criminal record, his low risk to reoffend, and his willingness to undergo counselling despite maintaining his innocence. Still, the judge found that “nothing about the circumstances reduces his moral culpability to a level which would make a conditional sentence appropriate.”

Martin was sentenced to 12 months of incarceration, followed by 18 months of probation, during which he is prohibited from having any contact with the victim or anyone under 16 unless there are other adults present.

The judge also banned Martin from possessing weapons for 10 years and ordered him to register and comply with the Sex Offender Information Registration Act for 20 years.

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