WINNIPEG - Former junior hockey coach and convicted sex offender Graham James has been released on bail and will be living in the Montreal area.
James was to be in court today to finalize his bail conditions, but documents indicate that a justice of the peace signed off on his release late Friday afternoon.
There are 11 conditions on his freedom, including that he reports to police in Montreal once a week, that he not leave the country and that he not be alone with a person under 18.
James faces nine charges stemming from alleged encounters between 1979 and 1994 involving three boys, one of them Theo Fleury, who became a National Hockey League star.
James, who is 58, served almost two years in jail in the late 1990s for assaulting three young hockey players, including NHLer Sheldon Kennedy.
He was initially convicted of assaulting Kennedy and another junior player. About a year later, he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a 14-year-old boy in 1971 and got six months in jail to be served concurrently with the original sentence.
James had been pardoned and moved to Mexico, but returned to Canada after Winnipeg police issued a warrant on the new charges in October.
