There is new information about a gymnastics coach facing sex-related charges.
We are learning that he was fired almost five years ago from a club here in Ottawa for "inappropriate communications" with a minor female athlete. Tumblers Gymnastics Centre in Orléans said in a statement that it terminated Scott McFarlane's employment and contacted the police. That was in 2013.
Scott McFarlane was not only a coach at Tumblers Gymnastics Centre in but an athlete, too.
He competed for Tumblers at the 2012 Nationals Open. Tumbler's president said in an email to CTV Ottawa that one year later, in April of 2013, Tumblers became aware of inappropriate communications between McFarlane and a minor female athlete.
“After conducting an investigation,” the statement said, “Tumblers determined that Mr. McFarlane had engaged in conduct that was incompatible with his continued employment and he was terminated.”
The club says it contacted appropriate authorities, including the police. Ottawa police tell us that unless charges were laid, they cannot comment on this. Peel Police, meantime, say they have had no further complainants come forward since McFarlane’s arrest on Tuesday.
Shortly after leaving the Ottawa club, McFarlane was hired by Manjak Gymnastics in Mississauga, where he coached for 4 years until a complaint against him resulted in his termination and his suspension from Gymnastics Ontario.
Yesterday, Peel Police charged the 28-year-old with multiple sex related offences involving a 15-year-old gymnastics student over a four year period. The charges included sexual assault, sexual interference, child luring, making sexual explicit material available to a person under 16 years of age and incident exposure to persons under 16.
Kelly Manjak owns and operates Manjak Gymnastics in Mississauga and spoke with reporters yesterday, “It's important for us to check references and that's what we need more of now, to make sure we are following up on the references now and not just one but all 3 references.”
Today, Chief Executive officer of Gymnastics Ontario, Dave Sandford said that Gymnastics Ontario wasn't aware of any other complaints about McFarlane prior to the most recent one in October of 2017. No one from Tumblers would agree to an interview today.
CTV Ottawa is also hearing that many parents whose children attended Tumblers at that time are upset they weren't told anything about this and are questioning why Gymnastics Ontario had no record of any complaint from 2013.
