Raymond Collingham will enter pre trial in September at the Ontario Superior Court for alleged offences against an Ontario minor.
Sexual assault case goes to trial
By Quinn Bender - Smithers Interior News
Published: July 23, 2008 8:00 AM
The former Smithers gymnastics coach accused of sexually assaulting an underage Ontario boy will proceed to trial for all 14 charges laid.
Raymond Collingham will appear for a judicial pre-trial in Whitby, Ontario, Superior Court Sept. 2 for the case of six counts of sexual assault, four counts of sexual interference, two counts of sexual touching and two counts of sexual exploitation.
A two-day hearing concluded July 7, with Madam Justice Mary Devlin ruling the Crown’s evidence for the charges was compelling enough to move to trial.
Collingham was employed as a gymnastics coach for the Smithers Saltos in July of 2007, when the RCMP arrested and extradited him to Ontario on behalf of the Durham Regional Police force.
Durham police alleged that the former Ontario resident became friends with the alleged male victim’s mother, spending time alone with the boy and starting an inappropriate sexual relationship that continued intermittently from 2002, when the boy was 11 years old, to 2005.
Collingham moved to Smithers from Oshawa at the end of August 2006 and began coaching the Smithers Saltos’ six to 13-year-old members.
Smithers RCMP say no accusations against Collingham have come forward from residents in the Bulkley Valley.
Collingham was 37 years old at the time of his arrest.
