Bob Birarda apologizes to victims ahead of sentencing
Posted September 2, 2022 9:37 am.
Last Updated September 2, 2022 9:16 pm.
Bob Birarda, the former Whitecaps and Canadian U-20 women’s coach who admitted to sex crimes against four of his former players, apologized to his victims in court Friday.
It’s an apology that Birarda says hes wanted to publically “say for very many years.”
“I am truly sorry to each of you for the pain, the upset and the trauma my behaviour has caused you,” Birarda said in court. “I cannot find the words to adequately express the depth of my regret, sorrow, shame and even self-loathing I have been filled with for all these years.”
He went on to add that after reading victim impact statements, he feels “so horrible.”
Birarda’s sentencing hearing resumed at the North Vancouver Provincial Court, several months after he pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault and one count of touching a young person for a sexual purpose.
The former coach’s lawyer is asking that his client receive eight months in jail, along with four months of house arrest. That’s shorter than the roughly two-year jail sentence the Crown is pushing for.
Birarda was charged with several offences against four people in December 2020, and pleaded guilty in February of this year.
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The crimes happened between 1988 and 2008. While he was a coach with both the Whitecaps women’s squad and Canada’s women’s under-20 team for the tail end of that period, some of the charges against him pre-date that period.
More than a dozen women involved in the teams came forward to accuse Birarda of acting inappropriately.
Birarda’s sentencing hearing began in June.
