A 13-year-old athlete experienced “uncomfortable” and “embarrassing” moments during private training sessions with his coach : Robert Litvack, a minor league baseball coach in West Montreal, allegedly asked the player to remove his underwear to massage him after his warm-ups.
These are the touches described by the teenager, who we cannot identify due to a court order.
The trial of the 44-year-old former coach began Monday in Montreal before Judge Josée Bélanger. Robert Litvack is accused of sexual interference and sexual assault of a child under 16. The victim was only 13 years old at the time of the alleged events, in 2021.
Towards the end of 2020, the boy’s father reportedly suggested that his son take private baseball lessons to improve certain techniques.
“I wanted to improve, to become a better player,” the victim explained.
Robert Litvack, who was heavily involved in minor baseball at the time, immediately offered to provide the youngster with training sessions. He therefore sometimes found himself alone with the youngster. Some of their meetings took place at the victim’s home, in the garage of the family home, according to the facts recounted in the courtroom.
Training usually began with stretching and warming up, the now 16-year-old said. But around November 2020, the coach first asks him to pull down his pants so he can massage her legs. He then allegedly suggests that she pull down her underwear as well.
The victim complies. The boy is then overcome with discomfort, too embarrassed to say anything. His feeling is increased tenfold when his coach, according to him, touched and spread his buttocks while his underwear was pulled down to his knees.
These gestures were allegedly repeated several times during the meetings.
Litvack also allegedly tickled the young man several times while walking him home from practice. “I laughed, but it was an uncomfortable laugh,” the teenager recalled in his testimony.
The teenager dreaded every session with the trainer. “I felt uncomfortable and I just tried not to think about it,” he repeated, questioned by Crown prosecutor Me Camille Boucher. Litvak allegedly asked him to tell him if the gestures bothered him, according to the complainant. “I just said ‘ok’,” the latter confirmed.
Robert Litvack is a well-known face in minor league baseball in the West Island of Montreal.
At the time of the alleged assault, the young victim was aware of his influence within minor league baseball, he confirmed. “He was selecting players during tryouts.”
The meetings between him and his coach ended when his mother asked him if the training sessions were putting too much pressure on him. He then confided in Litvack about the alleged actions.
This is Me Matthew Shadley and Me Claudel Nepton who defend the accused. The trial continues all afternoon.