West Island coach found guilty of sexual assault
By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban
Robert Litvack was found guilty of sexual assault and sexual interference on a 13-year-old late last week.
The 44-year-old Dollard-des-Ormeaux (DDO) man who coached various sports teams throughout the West Island was handed the guilty verdict by Justice Josée Bélanger of the Quebec Court.
As a direct result of his trusted position, Litvack managed to attack the young aspiring athlete who faced his aggressor in court, sharing his testimony last July alongside his parents.
At the time that the assaults occurred, Litvack was giving personal baseball training lessons to the teen in preparation for the next season. As part of the training session “preparations” Litvack massaged the teen’s legs, then told him to lower his underwear at which point he proceeded to massage his exposed buttocks for an average of 15 seconds during each session.
Litvack also invited the teen to participate in a disturbing version of a driving lesson, first allowing him to steer his car, then asking him to sit on his lap. During some car rides, Litvack tickled the teen on his inner thigh and repeated the same unwanted tickling while the teen was cornered in a baseball batting cage.
The privacy of the training sessions was further enhanced by the Covid-19 regulations coupled with the colder weather which stipulated that the teen could not be accompanied by his parents while participating in a private indoor training session.
According to the teen’s testimony, the unwanted gestures made him feel uncomfortable to the level where he was apprehensive each time he crossed paths with Litvack. “It’s not that I dreaded the practices, but when they were about to start, I was counting down the minutes,” he told the court last summer.
The ongoing sexual assaults ended after the youngster found the strength to talk about it to his mother, who in turn discussed the issue with his father. Together, the family decided to file a police report.
The AA bantam baseball coach was arrested in DDO in May 2021. The case caused a stir in the West Island due to Litvack’s involvement as an administrator in the Lac-Saint-Louis baseball organization. He was also a hockey coach. n
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