Maccabi in sex abuse scandal
THE AJN can reveal that a Maccabi junior basketball club is at the centre of yet another sexual abuse scandal in the Jewish community, after a suppression order was lifted in the County Court on Wednesday.
THE AJN can reveal that a Maccabi junior basketball club is at the centre of yet another sexual abuse scandal in the Jewish community, after a suppression order was lifted in the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday.
A former coach at the club in Victoria, Shannon Francis, 37, was sentenced to eight years with a non-parole period of five years and six months after pleading guilty to four offences, including two counts of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child under 16 and single counts of sexual penetration of a child under 16 and attempted sexual penetration of a child, aged 16. One of the victims was 14.
The offences were committed between 1999 and 2000.
Two of the four complainants in the case are Jewish, with Francis understood to have abused girls at one other club as well.
One of the victims slated Maccabi ‘s handling of the case, saying they had “continuously avoided the issue, denied responsibility and provided little support.”
“Members of Maccabi management were aware that the case had been reopened in 2011, but no real attempt was made to offer any sort of support until we sent a letter to the board a year later expressing our disappointment that they had failed to acknowledge the situation.”
A statement to The AJN on behalf of the two Jewish victims said a “high profile member of Maccabi Australia” had dismissed the matter earlier this year as “not a Maccabi issue”, adding he “never wanted to talk about the case”. The statement continued: “Their lack of sensitivity, compassion and empathy only served to compound our anxiety and distress.”
The AJN understands the same Maccabi official was made aware of concerns that Francis was spending too much time with the girls on his team in 2000.
Maccabi Australia president Lisa Borowick wouldn’t be drawn on the organisation’s handling of the case, saying that “Maccabi and its member clubs have never and will never condone, or seek to protect their own interests in any case of suspected criminality, especially one involving harm to children”.
Judge Meryl Sexton said Francis, in his early 20s at the time of the abuses, had “betrayed the trust” of his victims who were in a “vulnerable place” and that in one instance, Francis had used the threat of suicide to gain sympathy from a victim.
ADAM KAMIEN
Former Maccabi basketball coach Shannon Francis.
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