LAVAL, Que. — Disgraced former junior hockey coach Graham James was granted full parole Thursday.
The decision was handed down by the National Parole Board following a hearing at a federal penitentiary in Laval, north of Montreal.
James is serving a federal sentence for sexually assaulting players he coached in the late 1980s and early '90s with the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Hockey League.
James was granted day parole in January and the board members agreed he'd shown progress over the past months.
On Thursday, the parole board touched on the impact his crimes had on his victims — 20 by his own admission.
Board member Marc Gold read some of the victim statements: one said James took away his "soul and dignity," while another said the assaults left him a "broken and battered" man. Another was ready to commit suicide.
James told the hearing he managed to justify the acts to himself and that "rational thinking went by the wayside."
He described his acts as "horrific."
"I feel ashamed, I feel that I failed the people for whom I had the greatest responsibility and to whom I was closest," James said.
"It was a great failure in my life that I let them down."
Under full parole, James will now serve the remainder of his sentence in the community.
There are several conditions attached that forbid James from being in a position of trust with minors and he cannot communicate with his victims or their families.
The conditions will remain in place until his seven-year sentence expires in 2019.
