The third lawsuit accuses the late Winnipeg lawyer and underage hockey coach of sexual assault on minors

WARNING: This story contains shocking details of sexual abuse.

A man who says he was sexually abused as a teenager by a late Winnipeg hockey coach and lawyer is suing the man’s estate, in at least the third lawsuit filed against the estate.

The plaintiff, who uses the pseudonym John Doe in the lawsuit to protect his dignity and well-being, filed the statement of claim against the executor of Robert Dawson’s estate on Sept. 27 in the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench in Winnipeg.

The 27-page lawsuit accuses Dawson, who was certified as an amateur hockey coach for the Assiniboine Park Rangers team, of “undertaking a grooming and victim-finding expedition” during the 1994-95 hockey season.

Dawson, who died by suicide in October 2021, “intended to seek out the most vulnerable among the Rangers’ underage athletes in order to exploit, bully and ultimately sexually assault them,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also names the Assiniboine Park Hockey Association, Hockey Winnipeg, Hockey Manitoba and Hockey Canada as defendants, each of which oversaw the operations of the Rangers hockey team in some capacity.

Dawson, then 57, was charged with sexual assault and child pornography in September 2021 after two people came forward saying he assaulted them in their early teens, Winnipeg police said at the time. A month later he was found dead.

In December 2022, another former underage hockey player from Winnipeg filed a lawsuit against Dawson’s estate, claiming he was sexually abused by the coach in the 1990s.

And in March of this year, another man filed a lawsuit against Dawson’s estate, claiming the late lawyer befriended him when he was 17, invited him to stay at his home and then treated him as a sex slave.

Suffered abuse for two years: lawsuit

The latest lawsuit accuses John Doe of abuse during the two years he played on the team, from 1993 to 1995, when he was 13 to 15 years old.

During team practices, games and events, Dawson routinely asked the team’s players, including John Doe, intrusive and inappropriate questions about their personal lives, drug and alcohol use and sex lives, the lawsuit says.

Dawson also asked players to undress in front of him while flexing their muscles and would, according to the statement, take photos of players in various states of undress.

When the team stayed in hotel rooms for away games, Dawson regularly engaged in conduct such as touching the genitals of the underage athletes, including the plaintiff, without their consent, and generally tested the athletes’ reactions to determine whom he might take advantage of who would defend themselves, the lawsuit says.

Dawson learned that the plaintiff had an unstable home life in which his parents were either absent or relatively uninvolved, and arranged for him to provide himself with additional income by logging work for his law firm in his home office, the filing states Suit.

In early 1995, he asked John Doe to appear as a child actor in a video for the Manitoba Bar Association about the dangers of witnessing childhood sexual abuse. The attorney then filmed him sexually and physically abusing the minor by fondling his genitals, tying him to a bed to restrain him, forcing him to wear a ball gag and a blindfold, and masturbating him, the lawsuit says .

The lawsuit alleges that Dawson used his position of power to pressure and intimidate the plaintiff into agreeing not to disclose the sexual assault to others.

The defendants were aware of the predatory behavior, the lawsuit says

The lawsuit also alleges that the defendants and coaches on the Rangers team knew that Dawson was prone to predatory and sexually abusive behavior, which led them to hold a team meeting in which they warned the athletes never to be alone with him .

In the meantime, Dawson was allowed to continue training for the Rangers and maintain trusting relationships to groom his future victims, including the plaintiff, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also accuses the defendants of failing to adopt policies condemning abuse and predatory behavior, failing to counsel or treat victims and failing to encourage players to report incidents of assault.

Victor Bargen, the lawyer for the executor of Dawson’s estate, did not respond to a request for comment from CBC on Tuesday, nor did the other named defendants.

None of the allegations have been tested in court and no defense statements have been filed.

The abuse remains very painful for John Doe, the lawsuit says, and has resulted in depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts, lack of trust, low self-esteem, addiction problems and difficulty maintaining healthy relationships.

The lawsuit says he is seeking general damages for loss of past and future earnings and to cover any medical costs.

For anyone who has been sexually abused, support is available through crisis lines and local support services through the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. ​​If you are in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of self-harm, you can find help here: