PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance on Wednesday sentenced basketball official Emanuel York (49), who was described as a "digital child molester," to five years for the sexual abuse of two minor boys.

 

Prosecutor Maarten Noordzij had requested six years during the December 17, 2014, hearing of this case.

 

York's lawyer Brenda Brooks had pleaded for her client's full acquittal, but the Court held the St. Maarten National Basketball Association (SXMNBA) official responsible for raping a 15-year-old boy on April 2, 2014, after he had groomed the child on the Internet, using Facebook and persuaded him to meet up for a one-to-one coaching session.

 

The second case, which involved a series of rapes of a 17-year-old boy between August 2013 and February 2014 in which the child was groomed in a similar manner, also was found proven.

 

The defendant had used the same modus operandi to lure his victims in both cases. He had met them via the Internet and had promised them a spot on basketball, baseball or Taekwondo teams and had promised them trips to the United States as part of an exchange programme.

 

He also had offered one of his victims his assistance in obtaining a Dutch passport and a job with the Coast Guard, using forged documents.

 

In exchange, the boys were subjected to tests and private one-to-one training sessions, during which they were subjected to running and other exercises. These late-afternoon sessions were not held at a basketball court or baseball field, but in remote areas such as Mt. Bishop Hill and the hills behind the Vineyard Building, where they were touched, forced into sexual acts and raped.

 

York, shaking his head in apparent disapproval as he listened to the Judge reading out the sentence, had denied he had touched the boys or had any sexual contact with them.

However, the Court found it proven that the victims had been threatened with publication of nude pictures and of chat messages with a sexual nature if they refused to have sexual contact.

 

The Court said the defendant had used his seniority, intimidation and physical superiority to break his victims' resistance and overpower them. It was considered proven that York had blackmailed and terrorised the older victim for a long time. As a consequence, the boy's results at school had deteriorated and he lost his girlfriend.

 

The Daily Herald

 

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