A former youth football coach in Norwell, Massachusetts charged with sexually assaulting minors has recently been sentenced to 45 years in prison and five years of supervised release.
Derek Sheehan, 51, was sentenced in federal court in Boston on Nov. 23 after pleading guilty to three counts of child sexual abuse on July 20, a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice said.
“Mr. Sheehan abused his status as a youth football coach to prey on vulnerable children. He manipulated and sexually exploited them for months, and for that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars,” Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell said in the press release.
On Aug. 17, 2018, Sheehan's house was searched after one of the juvenile victims reported sexual abuse by Sheehan to local law enforcement in June 2018, the release said. The search led to the seizure of electronic devices containing child pornography. An investigation of those devices revealed video evidence of Sheehan sexually assaulting three juveniles at his house between March 2017 and July 2018.
Sheehan, who was a Norwell youth football coach at the time, knew all of the victims in the recordings, the release said. They were aged 11 to 12 when he sexually assaulted them.
“Adults who use their access to children for their own sexual gratification, like former football coach Derek Sheehan did, are both a danger and a disgrace,” Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division, said in the release. “While today’s sentencing cannot erase that harm, it ensures he will remain behind bars for a very long time, unable to victimize anyone else, ever again.”
