Procel: I was never warned about abuser
MACCABI Australia mainstay Harry Procel (pictured) has vehemently denied reports he was warned about recently jailed former basketball coach Shannon Francis in 2000.
Francis, who is not Jewish, was sentenced earlier this month to eight years in jail for child sex offences committed while he was a coach at a Maccabi Victoria Basketball Club almost 14 years ago.
A woman, who asked not to be named, told The AJN last week she warned Procel in 2000 about Francis who she said had been “coming on to” a young team member in his charge.
Francis continued to work at the club following the alleged warning.
“I wouldn’t and couldn’t have [kept] it to myself. I knew something was wrong and spoke to Harry [Procel] about it,” the woman recalled.
“It wasn’t a long conversation, but [Procel] assured me things were being taken care of,” she said.
But Procel says he has no recollection of any such warning, adding that he disputed the woman’s version of events “vigorously”.
“I’m flabbergasted, astounded and cannot believe what’s going on.
“It’s like a witch-hunt.”
The decorated Maccabi legend said it was impossible he had forgotten the conversation with the woman, insisting it never took place.
“We’re 13 years later, you can’t remember every conversation you’ve had 13 years ago, but this is not something I would forget lightly,” Procel said.
Asked why someone would falsely accuse him of ignoring a pointed warning, Procel said: “They may have a personal view about me and that’s as far as I would be prepared to go. When you take on leadership roles you can’t please all the people all the time.”
Procel said that while he had little to do with Francis, he did recall that the former coach “had a close relationship with the girls” at the time the abuses occurred.
Maccabi Australia president from 2006 to 2011, Procel said he only became aware of the abuses months after the fact.
“Afterwards I got stuff, not directly, indirectly. I found out via another source, nothing directly, three months after the event, that something may have happened. I never knew any of the extent or any of it.”
Francis will spend a minimum of five years and six months in jail after pleading guilty to 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. Two of the four complainants in the case were Jewish, with abuses understood to have taken place at another club he coached as well.
ADAM KAMIEN
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