SAINT-JEROME, Que. — The former Alpine Canada ski coach charged with sexually assaulting 11 young female athletes will make a second request for bail.
Bertrand Charest's lawyer, Marc-Antoine Carette, is scheduled to make the case on April 29 to have his client freed pending trial.
Quebec court Judge Michel Bellehumeur already denied Charest's bail request in March, claiming the ex-coach was a possible danger to the public. He also stressed the need to maintain the public's faith in the justice system.
Carette said Wednesday that Charest is not a danger because the most recent charges against his client date back to 1998.
The ex-coach is facing 56 charges in the alleged sexual assault of 11 young female athletes aged from 12 to 18, starting in 1991.
Charest allegedly assaulted the women north of Montreal and in France, Austria, New Zealand and the United States.
Alpine Canada said in a March statement it contacted the RCMP in 1998 about sexual-abuse complaints against Charest.
The organization said it opened its own investigation early in 1998 and then told Charest he was being removed as a coach.
Alpine Canada maintains it was not aware of the results of any RCMP probe.
